Easy Peasy ~ Ruched T-shirt Shrug

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I don't know what the weather is like in your neck of the woods but it's already blazing hot here in Georgia and after running around all day in a cropped sweater over my strapless dress, I decided I needed a better alternative. (If only I was that girl who felt comfortable running around half dressed...I am not.) A thin, short sleeved t-shirt sounded so much more appealing.  All day as I walked around sweating to death I dreamed of how I could revamp a nice, cool, thin, lightweight t-shirt into something fabulous for these miserable southern summer months.  This is what I came up with.  :)

(ps..these adorable jersey maxi dresses are only $12 at my Walmart)

Here is the shirt I decided to use.  It already had these 3 little rosettes on it.  I thought about removing them but, in the end loved the way they looked and left them on.

Fold your shirt in half.  Make sure it's nice and smooth.

Cut your shirt the desired length.  I cut mine 15" long.  You may want yours shorter or longer depending on your height.

Open up your shirt and cut, only the TOP layer, straight up the middle

My shirt kind of flared out and I didn't like it so I made it a bit more narrow.  It was originally measuring 18" across the bottom and I wanted it to be 12" so I took 3" off of each side.  I measured 3" in and made a little mark with my disappearing ink pen.

I used my yard stick to draw a straight line from my little mark, up to the end of the sleeve on each side.

I placed a few straight pins along the line to hold the two sides in place and sewed a new seam along the line using an overlock stitch on my sewing machine.  A serger would work great too.

Then I used my pinking shears to cut the excess fabric off from each side.

You know how when you call your mother in law and ask for a recipe and she gives you a list of ingredients along with the instructions of "oh, that's nothing, just a little of this and a little of that"  well...

This next part I just kind of eye balled.  (sorry) I know how annoying that is.  lol

I trimmed off the sharp corners at the top and bottom of each side then rounded off the middle with the sides touching about 1" below the armpit line. If you have a shrug you like you can always use it for a reference for this part if my (a little of this, little of that) instructions aren't doing it for you.  

Next I cut the bottom excess of my shirt into 1" strips using my rotary cutter.

This is what they looked like when I opened them up.

Then I ran a long loose basting stitch straight up the center of each one.

Here's a super easy trick to get your strips to ruffle.  If you lightly hold your thread and let it run through your fingers as you sew it will cause your fabric to ruffle as you sew.  You can control how much it ruffles by how loosely you hold the thread.  Genius!

Next just place the ruched strips along the edges of your shrug and pin in place.

 Last sew a straight stitch directly over the basting stitch and that is it.  If you love the look of the rosettes, try adding some of our ITH Breathtaking Blossoms.  They would be so pretty with this project.

Either way it's so easy and what's even better is it's SO much more comfortable for the hot summer months!

Now I'm off to go get all the maxi dresses in every color from Walmart.  lol

~DeLynne