T-Shirt Revival 2.0

Spring seems to officially be upon us.  The short sleeve shirts are coming out and jackets are being left at home.  As much as I love Winter (or wallowed in misery at the lack of a Winter we had this past year) Spring always seems so refreshing.  Everyone is re-organizing and getting spring cleaning done.  For many of us this applies to wardrobes as well.  In my house this simply means swapping out some of my geeky t-shirts for ones I put away during the winter as well as being struck yet again at how it's not normal to have Summer and Winter socks.  As I've become more of an adult I do try on occasion to move away from my Doctor Who and Pirate t-shirts and more towards solid colors with an embellishment.  Feminine looking clothes, shocking!  In that vein, I found this diy on Pinterest over the winter and was waiting for the perfect time to give it a try.  Without further ado, I present to you, the Braided Tee.

I was able to do the whole project from start to finish in about half an hour, woohoo!  You totally have that kind of time, I know you do.  Also, the focus sucks on all of these for which I sincerely apologize, it's possible my incredibly beat up well loved camera from 2006 is coming to the end of it's life.

Start with a cotton tee.  You'll be making slits along the neckline.  I've folded over the fabric here so that I can make each slit with one cut.

I've made the first cut which should only be about half as long as the rest as it will stretch out significantly through the process.

Here's the proportion of slits made.  Each of the longer ones is about 1.5" long and they are all a little more than .5" apart.

Working in small sections you'll eventually work your way around.  *Side note, it wasn't until I started this project that I realized why this shirt probably ended up at the outlet store...that neck line isn't exactly centered is it...

To start the whole braid off take the second loop and pull it through the first slit (the half size one) and back over the front.  Smooth out the neckline as you go.

To continue the braid take the third loop and pull it through the second loop.  Be sure to pull it all the way through  and smooth out the braid and neckline as you go.

Once you're finished realize that you have no purple thread and use black instead to attach the last loop to the shoulder and close up the whole that opened up by the first loop.

Admire your handiwork and promptly try it on before throwing it in the wash  to either doom your handmade stitches or be proud of those as well. 

Tips & Tricks:

• This will raise the neckline of your shirt a bit although longer slits may prevent that from happening.
• I found that it made the whole shirt fit a little more snugly and actually shortened it which was fine as I always pair it with a longer tank anyway but keep that in mind when choosing a shirt to work with
• Explore different ways!  Do a second row of slits, put the braids around the sleeves, around the bottom of the shirt.  Take the same method to a skirt or weave a complimentary ribbon through along with the loops.  

If you give this a try I'd love to see what you do with it!

On a slightly different note, currently the weekly blog post has been a craft or a recipe, I'm toying with the idea of occasionally throwing in a post more life centered - budgeting, couponing, thoughts on movies, books, etc. are there subjects any of you would like to see posts on?  Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for reading and happy crafting!