DIY OFF-THE-SHOULDER TOPS FOR SUMMER
We own a couple off-the-shoulder tops and whenever you guys see us reppin’ them in a video or on instagram you ask for a tutorial. SO today we show you how to make your very own off the shoulder shirt for summer. We have an easy upcycle AND we’ll teach you step-by-step how to make one from scratch. You can do it! Can’t wait to see your creations.
UPCYCLED OFF-THE-SHOULDER SHIRT
Cost: ~$10
Difficulty:
Tools:
– need and thread or sewing machine
– scissors
– measuring tape
– pins
– fabric chalk
Materials:
– blouse (preferably large fitting and flowy)
– 1.25m of a thick elastic
For our first off-the-shoulder shirt method we are starting with a button up blouse straight from the 80’s that we picked up at the thrift store. We chose this shirt because of the flowy fabric and the amazing print. Make sure you pick up a shirt that would fit loosely on you; we went a couple of sizes up.
The first step is to draw a line across your blouse as high as you would like your shirt to start. We did ours pretty much as high as we could. We drew one line all the way across and then added vertical lines that run parallel to the seam of the arm of the shirt. Connect your vertical and horizontal line with a curved line. Cut through both layers of your shirt along the line.
We then flipped our shirt inside out. For this shirt we chose thick elastic. We are adding a tube all along the top of the shirt the width of the elastic. We folded the top over and then folded the bottom under about a ¼ of an inch to hide the raw edge. We will sew a line all the way around the shirt on the bottom part of the tube. Make sure you’re not pinning the front and back of the shirt together and leave a small gap for the elastic so we can thread it through after.
Once the tube is sewn up we are going to take our elastic, we bought 1.25m of elastic. You guys know how to do this, add a safety pin to the end and thread through the tube. We put the shirt on and figured out how tight we wanted the elastic to be, and brought it back to the sewing machine and added two small stitches at the ends of the elastic.
The last step is to sew up the rest of your tube with your elastic securely inside. Flip inside out and we have a gorgeous upcycled off-the-shoulder shirt.
SEW-YOUR-OWN OFF-THE-SHOULDER SHIRT
Cost: ~$10
Difficulty:
Tools:
– need and thread or sewing machine
– scissors
– measuring tape
– pins
– fabric chalk
Materials:
– 1.25m of a flowy fabric (ours is rayon in a tie-dye print)
– 1.25m of a thin elastic
Our second method includes a couple of more steps but it’s perfect because you can choose any pattern or colour of fabric you’d like! We started with 1 and ¼m of this gorgeous flowy rayon tie-die fabric.
Our first step was to cut out a giant rectangle that is 56 inches by 8 inches. We folded our fabric in half and measured 28 inches by 8. We pinned and hemmed both of the long edges. Then with the good sides together we sewed along the 8-inch side.
Next we cut out two 18” x 28” rectangles out our leftover fabric. Next we folded the 28” side in half so we had 4 layers of fabric. From there we measured 2.5” in from the cut edge, and 7” down. We connected these two points with a gradual curve and cut through all 4 layers. These are our armholes. Next we sewed together the sides of the shirt, make sure your good sides are together. Once that was done we hemmed the inside of the arm holes and the bottom of the shirt by folding the bad sides of the fabric over about ½ an inch, don’t worry about the top of the shirt. Once all the hems are sewn we are ready to put our two pieces together.
With your shirt lying with the wrong sides facing out, bring in your long rectangle piece also with the wrong side facing out. Sandwich this piece in between the front and back of your shirt. Next we folded the edge of the rectangle piece over the shirt piece to create a tube. We made sure the shirt edge is in the tube and not showing since it is not hemmed. Continue making the tube on the rectangle “off the shoulder” piece and bring it around the back so that the tube goes all the way around. Again we left a gap to insert our elastic. Sew along this line. We purchased 1.25m of elastic, this time a slightly thinner one, add a safety pin to the end and thread it through the tube. We put on the shirt inside out to determine the tightness of the elastic, and held together with the safety pin. At the sewing machine we sewed the two ends of the elastic together. Insert into the tube and sew up the little gap in the tube, flip it inside out and you’re done!
