Shirt to Skirt Tutorial

I was going through my closet the other day, found a few shirts I was going to take to the local consignment store...but decided to try turning one into a skirt....I took photos as I went, I'm not a tutorial pro, so let me know if you have questions!

 Here's the shirt...cute t-shirt....but just didn't flatter me

 You're going to need a t-shirt, scissors, elastic band, pins, and a sewing machine!

 

 Lay out your t-shirt nice a flat, make sure the bottom edges of front and back are even and line your cutting tool under the arm pits, if you don't have a cutting tool, draw a line with a fabric pencil

 

 Now you'll have 2 pieces, throw away the top, save it for a fabric flower, etc.....

Next...measure your waist or wherever you'd like your skirt to hang from your waist/hip area and add 1/4 inch...take your elastic, (which you can find at JoAnn Fabric..this is wide elastic),and cut it....

Then, sew your elastic with a 1/4 seam so it forms a circle...I used a regular stitch for this

..and now the fun part, pin your shirt/skirt to the elastic, your fabric will not be the same size as the elastic band so you'll have to stretch here and there to even things out.  Leave about 1/2 to 5/8 of fabric overlapping the band for your seam.

Now, you're going to sew your pieces together...this is IMPORTANT....do NOT use a straight stitch because your stitches will pop and rip apart when the elastic stretches.  Set your machine to a stretch zigzag stitch...this stitch does not look like a zigzag, but does a small back/forth stitch that will give your finished item a stretch w/o tearing the seams! 

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 ....and here's the not so good photo of the finished product, knobby knees and all!  You don't get to see my head because I had the idea to make this in the shower, so as soon as I was out (and dressed) I whipped this up, wet hair and all!