I had this T-shirt that I absolutely loved, after having reverse tie-dyed it myself. The problem was that it was huge on me. So I decided to get a bit creative. With just a few snips and a little bit of sewing, I turned that oversized T-shirt into a brand new jumpsuit. In this tutorial I’ll talk you through how to upcycle one of your shirts with not much more than a pair of scissors, and a little bit of sewing. Follow the steps below and before you know it you’ll be rocking your brand new jumpsuit!
By BlueprintDIY
Turn A T-shirt Into A Jumpsuit With This Easy Tutorial
6 materials
$10
2 Hours
Advanced
Tools and Materials:
- Large T-shirt
- Scissors
- Sewing machine
- Fabric ruler
- Sewing pins
- Erasable fabric marker
Outline your jumpsuit pattern
Outline your jumpsuit
Decide how low you want your V-neck to start, and where you want your straps to go, and put in a pin to mark the spot. Next, you want to mark the V in the back as well. I used a heat-erasable fabric pen for this part because I didn’t think I’d be able to put in a pin without stabbing myself. After that, mark where you want the bottom part of the shirt to turn into shorts. The last thing you want to do for the outline is to take a girth measurement. Using a fabric ruler, measure from the front of your crotch to the back of your butt. (Mine was 10”.)
Cut your jumpsuit
Cut down where you marked
Lay out your T-shirt on a flat surface and cut off the sleeves starting from your pin, then cut a V from either shoulder down to that pin. If you’re planning to hem the edges, make sure to leave seam allowance! After you’ve done that, go ahead and remove your pins.
Cut pattern for your DIY jumpsuit
Prep your shorts
Fold your shirt front side to front side and back side to back side. Find your marking for where you want your shorts to begin and measure how high up that is. Then go to the other side and mark that same height. You’ll be using your girth measurements to cut out a general pants pattern. The back curve is the longer one, as that’s the one that’s going to go over your butt. Now, you’re going to split that crotch-to-butt measurement that we took earlier. So since mine was 10”, and the back curve should be the longer one, I split that up to 4” in the front and 6” in the back, and marked those measurements (again, leaving space for seam allowances.)
DIY T-shirt to jumpsuit
Cut out your shorts
Mark this rough curve, and then go ahead and cut it out. Then move to the back and cut out your bigger curve.
Cut open your T-shirt
You’re also going to cut up the middle so that you can split open both sides of the shirt, then go ahead and open it up.
Sew together your DIY jumpsuit
Sew your pieces together
Lay your pieces next to each other, then flip one over so that it’s slightly overlapping.
Separate your jumpsuit pattern
Prep to sew your DIY jumpsuit
Sew together both front sides, and both back sides, all the way up to the neck. Then open it up. Technically, you could be done here! I, however, wanted to make some adjustments to the way my new jumpsuit fit me, so keep reading to see how I did that.
Make adjustments
Figure out your adjustments
Once my jumpsuit was sewn together, I put it back on. I didn’t like how baggy the sleeves were or how low the shorts went, so I pulled it up to how I wanted it to fit and added pins to the sleeves. I then added a new pin for how low I wanted the neck to go. Then I pinched together the loose sleeves and added pins where I wanted to put in a dart. (Best to put the pins for the dart on the inside of the jumpsuit.)
How to adjust your short jumpsuit
Sew in your adjustments
Cut apart your sleeves. You can sew them back up where you want them, or you can leave them loose and tie them together at the top. Then you’re going to fold the suit in half so that you can cut the new neck angle, then do the same thing on the back. Now flip your jumpsuit inside out and sew in your darts. You can then double-fold-hem the edges by turning the edges in twice and sewing them down. If you want, you can also open up the seam and add two top stitches. Lastly, turn it inside out and sew the crotch closed, lining up the seam from the front and back.
DIY jumpsuit with blazer
DIY one-piece jumpsuit
Guys, I LOVE how this jumpsuit turned out! I chose to fold up the bottoms of the shorts just to give it a little extra oomph. You can pair this with a blazer, belt, and heels to go for a fancier look, or keep it casual as is—I loved how it looked with my thrift-store boots! Either way, this is the perfect summer outfit, and I plan to wear it all the time. Which look do you like better? Let me know in the comments below!
Comments
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I would so do this to all my BF shirts. But I cant sew. I would need someone to come to my house and do it with me... No lie. But I love the idea.
I liked the big shirt and the last part u cut n sew. That skort is best for teenage girls.
Great idea! I will try this.