$2 T-Shirt fix-up

The boys and I went to Wal-Mart the other day. And while I have a love/hate relationship with Wal-Mart (as in, I love the prices and hate the mass-produced anonymity of it), I just had to stop and check out the $2 clearance t-shirts in the junior section. Well, I struck gold with this little number! And I can tell you exactly why they were on clearance for $2...the shirt you see me wearing is a Large. Your screen works fine, it really does say Large and I am a short little girl. Even if it is branded with Miley Cyrus' name (I'm 31 years old and bought a Miley Cyrus t-shirt...), these were still teeny tiny tees.

I'm not sure who actually made a paycheck for sizing these shirts, but someone might want to look into this. The small would probably look good on my 3 1/2 year old and I'm pretty sure the extra-small (yes, they actually had extra smalls in this style!) could have made a lovely jumper for my 2 year old...maybe with a more crawly boyish bug on it.

But, the point is that I brought it home without trying it on. Long gone are the days of trying on clothes in the store with 2 little boys in tow (hysterical laughter in the background). So I tried it on at home and really liked the fit, but it was too long. I couldn't hem it up because I didn't want to ruin the butterfly on the side. So I got out my 1/4" clear elastic and gathered the sides to bring up the hem. If you've never used clear elastic, you should definitely try it. I fell in love way back when during my cloth diaper making days and find that it's way more comfortable in clothing than the other elastics. You can find it at the fabric store or order it online in larger quantities for much cheaper.

I used the idea from this maternity shirt tutorial by homemade by jill.Love this idea of hers! And while I wasn't trying to bring in extra material for a baby bump, it worked great to bring up the extra length.

Here's the shirt on me before gathering the sides...

I measured 14" up from the hem on both side seams and marked it with a straight pin. 14" just happened to be the top of the design on the left side, but any length would work, of course.

 

Using a mid-width zig-zag stitch, I tacked it down at the hem. {make sure to backstitch at the beginning and end of each piece of elastic} I held the serged edge to one side and laid the elastic on top. Stretch your elastic, and then pull both the shirt and elastic taut. Obviously, the elastic was stretched more than the shirt, or you would be gather-less and this would be a huge waste of your time.
I know you don't have time to waste.

Repeat on the other side and it should look about like this.

Then, put it on (and maybe add a camisole underneath if your shirt only cost $2 and is cheap thin cotton). 

Step back and see how cute that is for such a tiny little bit of effort.

Oh, and don't forget to enter the giveaway!
It's open until Monday morning and I can't wait to pick a winner!

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