A Little Chop of Horrors Tutorial

Well, they weren't "horrors," exactly.  Just a handful of t-shirts that I'd gotten from the 99 Cent Store and from a rock-bottom Kohls clearance sale (for about $3).  I threw in a bit of brown jersey I found in the dollar bin at my local fabric store:

Yay!  At least they all coordinate!  Let's see if we can get
them to play nicely together in the sandbox, though.  

Here is the inspiration shirt from Anthropologie:

I like the idea, just not the colors.

Next stop:  Make it Mine!

First, I played around with the samples until I found a color scheme and layout I liked.  Then I started chopping the shirts up and sewing them back together in bands.  I matched the fabric placement & size for the sleeves, but decided to alter that in the body of the t-shirt.

I like this grouping!

When you're sewing the bands of fabric back together, it's a good idea to place existing seams together whenever possible, and place them at the side seams of your garment as well.  Unless you're going for the Franken-random-seam look.

Match those seams up if possible!

 Some of your chopped shirt bands may be wider than others.  That's fine if you have a serger, because it will cut off the excess.  If you're sewing using a regular machine, you can cut off the excess before you start.

The one t-shirt was inches wider than the others.

No worries, as long as you have the next band
of fabric in sight - if not, you can either trim the excess first before
you sew, or draw a line down the length of the seam line
with a chalk marker.

The semi-finished t-shirt.  You're never stuck with
the neckline you start with!  I opted to cut the crew
neck off the blue shirt - it was too high & tight.
Once you do this, you should staystitch around the
new neckline for stability.
Note that I did not stick with the size of bands that
the inspiration shirt used.  I'm the boss.  And so are you.

I cut another narrow band of fabric to make the neckline.
I pulled the v-neck out until it was nearly horizontal and
started pinning all the way around.

Stretch the band, especially in the front.  Pin where it should
go onto the neckline.  This will help it to lay flat when
you are done.

Do the same thing in the back of the neckline, only you do
not have to stretch it quite so much.

Where the fabric meets at the center back neckline,
 pin together or mark with chalk.

Sew the seam, being careful not to catch the t-shirt in the
seam.

Open it up and flatten it out.  I don't like to serge this seam,
as I've found that a regular stitched seam is much less
bulky during the foldover stage.

I sewed about a 3/8 inch seam, stretching the band to fit the
neckline.  Be careful not to stretch the neckline at the same time.

Sewing the v-neck area which has been stretched out almost
to a straight line.  If necessary, you can clip the v almost to
the stay-stitch line but not into the stitches.  

Trim the seam allowances.

Now take the neckband....

...and flip it up...

...and then over to the inside.  Make sure it overlaps the stitch
line a bit.

Pin it all into place, using more pins than you normally would.
Notice that the pins are on the inside - that way, you can make sure
you have overlapped that stitch line all the way around...

...because you're going to stitch it from the outside.  It's called
stitching in the ditch.  Sew the next line of stitches as close as
possible to the neckband, catching the overlap on the inside
in the stitching.

But what about that v-neck?  It's gone back to looking nearly
round again!  No worries, here's an easy fix - a sort of
Cheater's Miter.  

Fold the neckline in half at the point of the v-neck.  Note where
your stitching line is from where you attached the neckband.

Start at an angle away from the center, and sew down toward
the center, down to the stitching line where the neckband is
 attached.  Don't sew beyond that, or you'll get a
strange pucker on the outside.  I sewed this angle
just a bit further out than I had wanted - this might draw
the neckline in too far.  I can always re-do it if it doesn't sit right.

The finished pieced t-shirt.  

A close-up of the outside of that Cheater's Miter.
It still needs a good pressing - a step you don't
want to skip during construction.  You should always
press your seams out - it makes your garment look
more professional!

That's my chop shop - no longer a horror and it was a lot of fun.  When you use ultra sale shirts like this, or go "shopping" in your closet, you don't have much to lose if it doesn't turn out right.  As a bonus, you end up with enough leftover t-shirt parts to make a short-sleeved version as well!