A Modest Princess

Lauren had a black top with lace portions, thus she needed to wear a t-shirt under it and wanted a colored one as it would show through the lace. She found a green athletic fit t-shirt at the Thrift outlet for 25cents). Worn under the black top it was too bulky, and the v-neck conflicted with the round neck of the top being worn over the top so we turned it into a fitted undershirt.

With both tops on, we marked where the neckline of the black shirt, on the green shirt where we would need to cut it (with extra for seam allowance). We also marked where the sleeves would need to be shortened to  so that they didn’t protrude from the black shirt.

Next we folded the neckline sideways so that we didn’t make the mistake of cutting the back of the t-shirt as low as the front. We cut off the collar, with a little extra curve as we’re making a v-neck into a round neck.

We decided to take in the side of the shirt as the sleeves were too lose, and it seemed easier to take in the entire armpit rather than just the sleeves – so we marked where it needed to be taken in to. Then cut the sleeves and sides where indicated. We did not take in the shirt all the way down, as it was already tight around the hips.

Having finished the cutting, we started sewing the shirt back together, first we folded over the edge of the sleeves, pinned and hemmed them to the new length.

Then we put the right sides of the t-shirt together and sewed up the new side seams

We sewed a stay stitch around the neckline, so as to prevent stretch when we sewed the hem and thus preventing sagging off the neckline.

Finally we folded over the edge of the neckline, pinned and sewed it.

Now we have a fitted undershirt with the correct neckline and sleeve length to go under the black top.