I continue to revel in my recent new-found obsession with all things Alabama Chanin! I was never one for working with knit fabrics but I'm REALLY enjoying the "little" projects I've undertaken thus far. In fact I'm enjoying myself so much I decided to get the other two books in the Alabama Chanin series: Alabama Stitch Book and Alabama Studio Style, which were actually the first two books from the series. Both (of course) are similar to Alabama Studio Sewing + Design, which was the first book I owned, but there are more projects centered around the home in my new books. They even have recipes in them and some of them don't look half bad!
After reading the new books I had not realized that the company used to use old t-shirts as their main source for fabric. So much so, that many of their designs were dictated by this resource. By the time the last book was written (Sewing + Design) they seemed to completely move away from recycling t-shirts and only use fabric on bolts. While I continue to work on my reverse applique dress (check out my post from July) I thought I would do a quick project to up-cycle one of my old t-shirts. Here are some before and after pictures:
These are pictures of an old t-shirt I've kept for years commemorating the graduating class of 1997 from the Western College Program at Miami University. My college years were very good times for me and I always loved the color and logo of this t-shirt. But, after the 90s I never wanted to wear the shirt again because, while it might have been cute during the "Grunge era" it's not so stylish now. Unfortunately, these are very bad pictures because the shirt is actually purple, not maroon! The logo below says, "if the world is night... shine my life like a light..."
The next two pictures are much better because they show the actual colors! Here's what the shirt looked like after I was finished. The pattern for the tank top came from Alabama Stitch Book. The book explains how to deconstruct t-shirts to get the maximum amount of fabric possible and gives you step-by-step instructions on how to put the shirt together. I sewed the entire shirt together by hand using Coats & Clark's Dual Duty Plus Craft & Button thread. For my needle I used a standard embroidery needle I had laying around my sewing supplies. The eye just needed to be big enough for the thread to fit properly.
This is a view of the front and below is a back view.
One of the best things about working with cotton jersey is that you don't have to finish your edges unless you want to. Based on how the fabric is constructed it will not unravel! Finishing some of the edges may be beneficial for some of the designs, especially if you want a more polished look. For instance, I will probably finish the neck and armholes of the cotton jersey dress I'm still working on. This shirt took about three days to finish and now I have my old t-shirt back ready to wear!!!!
What do you think? Do you have old t-shirts that need new life? Let us know we may be able to help out!
