Monday, July 20, 2015

Criss Cross Applesauce: DIY Fancy Tee

First of all. Don't freak out. Don't run away. You're still in the realm of the llama. Yes, we're doing a fashion DIY today.

I originally saw this on a facebook video. (I think one other DIY was thanks to facebook as well!) It was just a minute long video, so I had to watch and rewatch about 50 times before I felt comfortable enough to even try this for the blog! (Emily, #fortheblog). I lucked out last Friday and my step sister wanted to help out, so we totally practiced on one of her shirts before I attempted one of mine. Full disclosure: I did two of my shirts.

What You'll Need:

  • A Shirt you won't hate that you totally ruin if you mess up (hey, all honesty, it could happen!) But it also needs to be a shirt you would want to wear more often than not! I suggest a plain, but cute Tee. 
  • Sharp scissors
  • Needle 
  • Thread (preferably to match your shirt, but hey, get adventurous. Why not?)



What To Do:

  • Fold your shirt in half in the back ONLY. We're not cutting through the whole shirt here, y'all. Just fold the shirt in half in the BACK. 
  • Cut into the back of the shirt. Your incisions will need to be at least half an inch but up to two inches into the shirt. The smaller your cuts, the smaller the width of the "box" on your back will be. 

  • The closer the cuts, the smaller the bars you will have across your back. So the distance between your cuts depends on how you want yours to look. I made mine pretty close together. 
  • Start About where your shoulder blades would be on the shirt and cut down as far as you will like. (If you don't want to sew much, don't go too far down!) 
  • Unfold the shirt. 
  • Intertwine your fingers (using both hands) and GENTLY stretch out your cuts to thin out the "bars"


Now here's the tricky part:

  1. Take the top "bar" (I don't know what else to call it!) Overlap it with the one immediate next to it. Grab the next "bar". 
  2. Sew these together in the middle. Just enough thread to where they don't pull apart. 
  3. Do this until you're done! 

Basically, the bar you grab will always overlap the one next to it. You're sewing every other bar together to get the criss cross appearance.

Once you get to the bottom, that's it. You're done! Now you have a really fancy looking tee, that in stores could have cost big bucks!

I want to hear from you! Would you try this shirt? Do you love this look? Tell me in the comments!
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19 comments :

  1. A little ventilation for those hot summer days! ;) Good for you for trying something new, lady! I get pretty scissor happy so I'm not sure I would have the patience to do a good job with this haha! Will there be more fashion DIYs in your future?!

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  2. I've done a few diy for t-shirts but this is new. Good for you for trying something new! You're braver than I am!

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  3. LOL my step sister actually showed me another shirt I wouldn't mind trying. So possibly. We'll see. It might be a once a month / rare occurrence. haha. I'm glad I tried it though, I've gotten so many compliments on it wearing it today. :) Maybe my next won't require needle and thread.

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  4. I'm glad I tried it. It's so fun and really transforms a plain tee. :) I'm glad you love it!

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  5. Haha thanks! Totally rocking this shirt today

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  6. You read my mind Melissa. I've been wanting to try this!

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  7. I hope you do! It's fun and relatively easy.

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  8. I love the idea of an easy DIY but I'm awful with sewing lol. I wonder if there were a way for me to do it without having to sew!

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  9. You could probably use a dab of fabric glue instead.

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  10. I saw this on Fb too. I'm not sure if I'll try it, but it does look cute!

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  11. I totally shared it on fb! Hahaha. I really love it. I got compliments on it from Lisa! (Aka fashion snob) haha

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  12. Omg I'm not the best with sewing either. My running stitch is like a zig zag stitch. Amanda's hotgot a great idea down there though!!

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  13. Daàwww thanks. If only I could generate without tanks that were this cute and didn't show half my ribs / side fat

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  14. ohhh i always wondered how they did that! it turned out pretty darn cute but i don't think i'm brave enough to try it!

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  15. isn't it fun though? I love it! I bet you could do it!

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