Super Simple Tee Shirt Makeover

I found the most awesome blog while I was skulking around Pinterest the other night.  Trash to Couture has some of the most creative, inspirational clothing makeovers I have ever seen.  I mean, hello!  That white tweed dress with the bows and chains on the home page right now?!  If it were several inches {feet} longer and I were several sizes smaller .....  I'm totally going to recreate that dress sometime when I have a minute.  But what got me to click over to Trash to Couture from Pinterest was this tutorial for turning an overlarge men's tee shirt into a super stylin' dolman sleeve tee shirt.  As we all know, I am still desperate for some cute things to wear on the cruise this weekend and as soon as I saw this I knew I had to make one.  I've got a small stash of  XXL men's tee shirts that I have picked up at thrift stores ever since I made my boys' pillowcases that I knew would be perfect for this project.  Here's my finished product:

I was determined to put a photo of myself wearing the shirt in this post because it is sooooooo much cuter on than it is laying on the floor like that, but when push came to shove I just couldn't do it.  I don't like to look at myself.  Besides the pics I took of myself were all blurry anyway.  Whatever.  Pretend I look as cute as Laura does on her blog.  I actually really like her off the shoulder look.  I think it gives it a little nod to the 80's or something.  I cut my neckline a little smaller for modesty's sake, which is still cute. It's just wide enough that I can wear a contrasting tank top underneath and have the straps show.

Here's my advice if you want to attempt a tee shirt makeover like this:  First, make sure your shirt is big enough.  The tutorial used an XL men's shirt.  Since I wear a men's L shirt at camp every year, I decided to use XXL.  I kind of wish I had gone with 3X so I could get more of an angle on the sleeve to emphasize the "dolman sleeve" effect.  Second, make sure your original shirt is big and boxy to begin with.  The shirt I used was from Banana Republic {via Goodwill} so it had a more "stylish" cut -- the sleeves were a little shorter and a bit more fitted.  A plain old Hanes tee shirt {or something similar} would give you more room in the sleeve to get the cool dolman look.

This whole project took me maybe 15 minutes to complete.  5 of those minutes were setting up my sewing machine and gathering supplies.  I liked it so much I made a second one in gray while I had everything out.  The ruched waistline makes it super flattering {even if you're not as skinny and model-like as Laura} and it couldn't be any more comfortable.  It's like getting all the comfort of wearing your husband's baggy old shirt and mega style points all at the same time!  Now it's 4 days until the cruise {really more like 3} and I have one more project I'd like to finish.  We'll see about that.

Also, I'm so serious about that white tweed dress.  I'm making it . . . someday.