Upcycled T-Shirt- The Great Caper

Ordinarily I would head to my local Goodwill outlet store where you can buy clothes by the pound, ugly ones but hey, isnt that the point of upcycling but money has been pretty tight this week o.k. non-existent so I have to resort to


stealing T-shirts from sleeping or working family members. This is DD Lyndsey who already knows I'm searching for T-shirts to cut up and upcycle into cute hats. Silly Lyndsey did you not think I would resort to getting up @ 3 a.m. to search your closet? Here is a pic of my plunder, Hopefully DH doesn't read my blog cause I am starting with one of his t-shirts. It's not like Aeropostle is never going to make another t-shirt right?

After reading the tutorial on upcycled t-shirt hats from Second Street again. I put together the tools for my crime.These are pretty technical especially the bowl and the paper measuring strip I cut from a roll of contact paper but you can pretty much buy anything on ebay these days.

Attempt #1= FAIL!! I did a couple of things differently than the tutorial, wasn't a fan of the exposed seams so I made my

t-shirt hat in two sections and used one for lining. I also wanted a stiffer bill so I slipped a piece of plastic canvas between the two interfacing pieces, this worked fantastic! OOps DH came home to get something he forgot had to take a break and hide the evidence since I was using his shirt first- He is very understanding about stepping on pins and trailing bits of thread everywhere he goes but cutting up his clothes is probably a deal breaker. And yes I know he's hot but unless you live in Charleston he will not be coming to fix your air conditioning.

I used this New York T-shirt for attempt #1-

I made the dumb mistake of forgetting to leave an opening to turn it so rrrripppp a couple of seams. A couple of things I also learned were to make sure your strips are long enough or the top of the hat puckers like a prarie bonnet. Second thing was don't let the bill stick out too far or..

Your hat ends up looking like this and unless the Yankees are thinking of changing their name to the New York Ducks, this is not going to work so back to the sewing machine..

Here is my finished upcycled t-shirt modeled by the beautiful Lyndsey who is totally unaware that she is wearing one of her favorite pink T-shirts on her cute wittle head!

You can find this and other upcycled T-shirt hats here.



This was so much fun, Thanks again for the great tutorial Second Street! Stay tuned for what's next!

Repentant Blogger

Oh my Goodness, I cannot believe a year and a half has gone by since I've seen this blog, much less posted on it. Like many other things you tell yourself you are going to stay dedicated, work on it every week (excercise comes to mind) then it just kind of goes to the wayside as other things in your life intrude and kind of push it out of the way. Well I'm back- I'm at a great place in my life now I'm only working a few days a week leaving me plenty of time to get crafty. I've opened up an etsy store that will soon be filled with great stuff both upcycled and new. Upcycling is my new passion. Daughter Lyndsey hides her clothes so they don't get made into baby shoes but really How cute are these baby booties made from a vintage cutter quilt? I love them and they are so warm and cozy! Today's upcycling project, after coffee of course is this really cool hat project made from upcycling t-shirts. After all that worrying about me cutting up her clothes DD Lyndsey actually sent me the link to this incredibly crafty lady over at Second Street who shares a great tutorial for making these upcycled hats. Family- hide your favorite t-shirts Momma's crafting!! I'll post some pics of the finished goodies later on.