T-Shirt + Tailored Shirt = Stylish Up-Cycle Top

It’s ‘SEW MUCH FUN’ when fabrics just fall together both in selecting and stitching…and that is exactly the story of this new top.

Once I decided on which fabrics to actually use in this garment, the rest was easy.

To start off, I’ll share with your photos of the fabrics that I was considering to use in addition to the base which was a man’s XL T with a stripe ‘texture’.

Here is the short sleeve men’s T-Shirt with which I started as my base.  I always scour not only my hubby’s closet, but thrift stores and clearance racks in men’s departments.  Why?  Because I feel strongly that men’s clothing has generally better quality fabrication than women’s.  Why?  Because I think that men hang onto their clothes longer – which demands better quality fabric – but that is just my own observation/conclusion..

A ‘dive’ into my blue stash yielded what you see in the photo below, a hunk of rayon knit leftover from a gift I’d made my daughter, another old T-Shirt, and a blue men’s tie. In the same photo, you can also see a ‘line drawing’ that I’d screenshot from the Vogue pattern website. I often work design-wise by being ‘inspired’ by something that has already been designed (pattern, or photo of a finished garment – usually online), rather than thinking it all up from scratch.  Here, my inspiration is