Designing Designer T-shirts

Last Saturday I taught a pants fitting class for a quilt store. The owner sponsored an ASG class I taught called Ready-to-Wear knock-offs and invited me back to teach the pants fitting class. It was a fun class for me to teach because I think a few of the students might actually try to sew themselves a pair of pants. After the class a couple of the students asked me how much I would charge to do the fitting alterations for them. Since my goal is to teach, I declined.

I was again invited back to teach my t-shirt knock-off class. This time I'm going to call it Designing Designer T-Shirts. Since I didn't get called in to work today, I've spent much too much time on the computer looking at RTW t-shirts. There are so many variations of the t-shirt to be bought and every time I find something cute, I copy it to my hard drive so I have quite a collection of ideas. Here are a few that I'm thinking about trying:


This first one is simply an overlay with cut-outs. It would be very simple to do if you had the right template for the cut-outs.


I think I could probably do something similar using this template. I could eliminate the stem for a couple of the flowers and enlarge and decrease the size of the flower as well. It's a good place to start anyway.


Another simple element that could be added to a t-shirt neckline would be to add some embellishments like this bead and soutache trim. I could use the pattern as is except to change the shape of the neckline.


This pretty flower applique would be very simple to do. It appears to be oval shapes that are gathered in the center and applied in bunches. Simple but would take a plain t-shirt into the spectacular range. I even have a cross-over t-shirt already drafted.


This simple t-shirt is quite lovely with the lace at the neckline. I think this one will be the first one I do because I already have the fabric and lace picked out in a spring orange color and a skirt that I could wear it with. It will require a redraft of the neckline and shoulder area, but it wouldn't be hard to do.


This top is a button down blouse, but I think the yoke with gathers and the tie/binding would look good on a t-shirt as well. The redraft would be quite easy to do and I think the gathers would flatter my bustline. It's a bit like the HP Metropolitan Tie Me Down Top in shape which I really liked, but hated to do the shirring. This would give me the shape I want without having to sew the elastic. Win-win!


This pleated top would take more redesign that the others, but it wouldn't be hard to do. Just seam lines added and pattern pieces spread for the pleats. The neckline shape would need to be altered as well. Don't you think a very short pleat puffed sleeve would look darling with the bodice pleats?

I can't say how many of these I'll get done before the class, which is scheduled for June 12th. The class will be held at Patchwork Penguin in Tujunga at 10:00 am. It's a cute store and if you are anywhere near the area, you should stop in to visit.