DIY your old vintage shirt into something new.
Want to give your old tee shirt in the back of your drawer a face life? We sat down with Jordan owner of Empty Hands Vintage and got all the details on how to restyle your old tees.
We're Growing Wildly and will be getting more of her vintage styles coming soon to our store.
What you’ll need:
An old vintage tee shirt you wanna cut up - doesn't matter the size
A pair of scissors (fabric scissors work best)
Chalk stick
Practice tee shirt if you haven't done it before and want to practice before hand
How to: Short Sleeve Crop Top
To start off, hold up the tee & lay the garment naturally on your shoulders. As you hold it up see where it hits your waistline. Your waistline is above your belly button area where your hip is. Once you see where it hits fold up where you want the tee cropped to. Lay the garment on an even floor and make sure the fold is even across. Once it’s where you want it, start cutting across the line. Make sure to leave enough slack in case you mess up. We’re not all perfect seamstresses and it's better to be safe than sorry. When it’s the perfect length you can start to stretch around the new seam line. This will make it look distressed and cause the bottom of your shirt to roll up a little.
For the sleeves: I rolled mine up just a little.
To give yourself a little more grundy distressed look, you can cut little slits around the neckline. To do so pinch and snip to make a small hole then pull on the seam, this adds texture. The holes will grow so be aware. When cutting take the scissors to the side like a hairdresser so its perpendicular to the shirt when cutting it.
Note: Adding some holes to the back adds some detail, detail isn't always in the front if you have your hair up it adds character.
When you're happy with how it looks you’re good to go, you made your first vintage shirts.
How to: Tank
Just like the first shirt: take the garment up to your shoulders and measure it up. For a semi crop, find your natural waistline like above - it’s basically where your hip line is. Place the garment on an even floor. Then use the scissors to cut across the fold and don't forget to give yourself more slack in case you mess up for safe measure. Take scissors and cut across. If the line is rough you can cut again and make it more even - don't throw away extra pieces use it as rags or to make a scrunchy. Stretch out around the hem which will cause it to roll up a little. For the Sleeves: - where the seam is go under it - follow the line of the actual seam and just go for it. Then fold tee shirt in half and match the shoulders. Trace where you cut before and then you don't have to estimate where to cut the other sleeve off and bam you're good to go. Neck: you can trim it down or add a little slice “choker style” triangle - do it with a chalk pen before to get the outline correct. Then pinch the tip of your triangle that you made at the bottom and make sure you don't have the back of the tee in it. Then pinch a little whole into it and cut your triangle outline. Then follow the color to cut the rest of the triangle outline off.
Empty Hands Vintage is coming soon to our site soon with all of your one of a kind vintage attire. More details on our launch date to follow.
For more vintage finds follow Empty Hands Vintage @empty_hands_vtg