Men's T + Tiered Gauze Skirt = Great Top

I'm back into Upcycle sewing, which I TRULY love. My soul has missed my creative sewing, so I'm trying hard to MAKE time to do at least a little bit every day. My 'rack' to sell has too many dark colors, so I took a dive into my AQUA STASH BOX and found this Russell 2XL Men's T and a kinda worn-looking gauze-tiered skirt. I also decided I wanted to make a top for a larger size lady, so I padded out my dress form (eventually).

'Aged' and blotchy tiered gauze skirt

Men's 2XL Trainer T

Fold T in half at Center Front and Center back to cut an even, symmetrical new lower neckline - which also got rid of that black band at the center back.

My first observation was that the T was really a jersey on the front and a 'hole-type' knit on the back, so I decided to cut a lower neckline and add a ruffle using the 'holey' back fabric hem as a ruffle.

I gathered the hem edge I'd cut off the back, set it between the raglan front sleeve seams and then bound with a crossgrain strip of the holey fabric as well. Note that I stitched the right side of a doubled binding to the WRONG side of the shirt and the pulled it to the outside to stitch down. I stitched it down using clear monofliament thread in the needle in a very narrow zig zag, but 3 long.

Note I'm putting some of my construction steps into the 'Caption' underneath each picture. Bear with me - I'm still getting used to the editor features here on the Blog portion of my website. I use monofilament thread in the needle - A LOT! I love the YLI Wonder Thread. Find it on my website HERE. This polyester thread comes in clear and smoke. Since this is a lighter color, I used the CLEAR - but I only use it in the needle. I also find I need to LOWER the needle tension a bit so that I don't see any of the bobbin thread peaking to the top.

This 2XL shirt was REALLY big, and even though I padded out my dress form, I knew I wanted to narrow it in under the arms.

I just seamed that extra undearm piece out through the shirt itself (not the sleeve, to a point that I thought would be below the bust, then let it expand.

Here you can see that I took tucks under the bust to make it closer fitting there. This looks easy, but to get them even - takes some doing - measuring! I pressed in a center front and center back line to help.

Next, I decided I would use the gauze skirt as a 'skirt' on the top, and that I wanted a flattering 'line' where they joined, making the end result longer in the back, so this line needed to be angled.