With summer getting closer, shopping for new and stylish summer clothes is a must, but being a broke college student the price tags scream “no”. Over spring break I came across a YouTube channel called The Sorry Girls which was full of DIY projects. I found the instructions to make an off the shoulder shirt, which are seemingly popular for the summer. Never really having sewn before, with the help of my mom who is an experienced seamstress, I decided to give this project a try.
The blog listed this project as a medium level of difficulty, but I did not find it to be overwhelmingly difficult. First things first, you need basic sewing tools: scissors, a measuring tape, pins, fabric chalk, thin elastic and a either a needle and thread or a sewing machine. But, this project is easier with a machine. The next step is picking a fabric and for this project, the flowier the better. The fabric will need to be large enough to cut out a rectangle of 56 by 8 inches and two rectangles the size of 18 by 28 inches.
The first step in the sewing process is to make the flowy overlay piece. You make this piece by cutting the 56 by 8 inch rectangle. Then, you pin and hem both sides to ensure a neat line. Once that is done you want to form a circle and sew it together. An important fact to remember when forming the circle is to make sure that all unneat sides are on the inside of the circle.
Next you will cut two 18 by 28 inch square pieces of fabric. After that was done, you lay them on top of each other and fold them in half, so you have four layers of fabric. Out of the four layers of fabric, we want to cut out the arm holes. In order to do this you measure 2.5 inches in and 7 inches down. Next, you lay out the fabric and sew the sides together to form a shirt. Then, you hem the bottom of the shirt in order to keep it neat.
The third step consists of sewing the two pieces together. When doing this, it is important to make sure the circular piece is between the two layers of the shirt. Then you pin and sew these two pieces together. When sewing it is essential to leave a small area to insert the elastic, which is important to holding the shirt just off your shoulders. The elastic can be inserted by attaching a safety pin to the start of the elastic and then feeding it through. Once that is done, stitch the area shut. Voila’ you have a new shirt!
When making this shirt, I found that you had to size it to your desired fit. Being more on the petite side and wearing about a size small in a shirt, I found that the 28 inches around was too big. With that being said, I resized my fabric to be 24 by 19 inches. Based on the looks and feel of the original 18 by 28 inches I feel this would be an accurate size for somewhere who would wear a medium or large in a regular shirt. I also adjusted the length of mine by an inch to make sure it wasn’t too short. However, since this isn’t a true pattern fitting the shirt to your body measurements is the best bet to make it feel the most comfortable. Overall, this project was a success and I highly suggest checking out The Sorry Girls Youtube channel or website for complete instructions and for more projects like this.