Saturday, December 1, 2012

DIY Cropped Tee Shirt


Okay......
First blog post.....
Maybe I should start by talking about myself......
No, that's not happening today.
Instead I have a DIY for you. 
Yea, thats the whole reason I'm here, I need a way to share the things I do, people ask me how to do things and I can't explain it to them properly without pulling out a tee shirt and scissors or grabbing my nail polish and just showing them. 
Also, sorry about the derp-y drawings but I couldn't help myself, I personally think they're adorable.

Start by grabbing an old worn in tee shirt* & a pair of scissors.



So there's your tee shirt. Lay it out flat on the floor and get a good look at it because it will never look that completely yawn-worthy again.


So now that it's all laid out take your scissors (Make sure they're sharp enough to easily cut your shirt) and cut closely around the collar, cutting the collar right off (That's what those messy little dotted lines are supposed to show). Then stretch it out a little but so it has less of a rough edge. If you want a wider collar cut it a little further out on either side of the original collar.


Now that that's done figure out just how cropped you want it. I usually throw it on at this point and decide where I want it cropped to based on where the graphic is (Like 2 inches below the graphic, or whatever your thinking). Then take it off and lay it back down flat. Take a ruler and lay it where you want the shirt cropped to. Make a tiny cut on both edges of the tee shirt (Like in the picture) where you put your ruler.


Now cut up the center of the front of your shirt all the way to where your tiny side cuts are.
Next, make cuts from above the bottom hem of your tee shirt where you made the big center cut to the tiny cuts in the sides of it. Angle them so they look like the picture.

If everything went right (no guarantees here) your shirt will hopefully have kind of a mullet look going on where its long and tee shirt looking in the back but has these little triangular flaps in the front.


Flip your shirt over and carefully smooth it out. then find both of the cuts you made on the sides of your shirt. Cut straight across from one cut to the other. Be very careful here so you don't cut of the front part that you just spent oh so much time on.


Okay, If you made it this far your almost done! Your shirt should look like this. It should have kind of a backwards mullet thing going on.


Put your tee shirt back on. Grab both ends of the front where the slit is and tie them together. I double knot them. If your knot looks strange just play with it and retie it until you get the look you want. Now you're done! I usually throw it into the wash before I wear it so the cut lines look a little less crisp. 
 

There's one I made. ^
Yes, I was wearing it this whole time.
What can I say, I love it.
I also like to get my tee shirts at places like Savers or Goodwill on account of the one's that I have laying around my house are from school things and honestly, they make's a pretty lame cropped tee.

*If the one you want to use is new or stiff you can throw it into a quart of water mixed with a half cup of salt for a few days. (Two or three days, depending). Then just wash it like usual before cutting it. This, for some reason makes tee shirt's incredibly soft & worn in.

**Also, I know that there are other posts on how to do this, I've seen them on Pinterest. However I never got around to reading them (Like everything on Pinterest) So I just made this up. I wouldn't be very surprised to find easier one's somewhere else, this method is just what I do.