I had seen a lot of YouTube videos of people using their existing clothes to create templates/patterns that they could then modify into new creations and thought this was a great idea, and used that approach to sew my first shirt from scratch.

I had bought clothes patterns before thinking they would make it easier to sew full outfits but found them overwhelming and felt like I was taking my measurements a million times and still not knowing what to do with them. To create this shirt I started with a plain T-shirt and traced the outline of it on tracing paper. Using a piece of random fabric that was less than a yard I had bought from Joan’s remnants section…fancy way of saying left overs, I cut out my new t-shirt. I did customize it by removing the sleeves and bringing in the waist a little but everything else was the same t-shirt outline. After sewing it up and trying it on I fell in love with it. Not because it’s just shy of perfect (bias opinion) but because it was wearable and looked like a shirt! After finishing, I put it on and for about 30 minutes walked around the house bragging to my husband about how great it looked. I then went back to my sewing machine and determined it was missing something and that’s when I added the loose knot/bow to the front.