Skirting the Issue

Before: the shirts. 

I had a rare productive day on Saturday (without structure, my days tend to go poof! without me accomplishing anything at all), in which I finished the dress I shared yesterday and also a t-shirt skirt.

I started with this stack of t-shirts (one mine that I wore one time and immediately sweat-stained, sigh, and the rest were Chadwick's) and this tutorial for a t-shirt skirt, which I completely ignored once I got going, but it was great for giving me some ideas.

Other things circular knitting needles
can do-- I used mine to draw the
shoestring through the skirt without
a lot of fuss.

I used the white t-shirt for the base, since it was just the right size to go around my hips/legs and be snug without being uncomfortable. (Yes, I did step into it upside down and put both feet through the neck hole to determine this.) Also, that shirt was way thin-- I'm pretty sure it was meant for layering in the first place, which is great since that's basically what I've done with it. My original plan was to sew in some elastic, but... I hate elastic. So, I grabbed a shoelace I have laying around, cut a couple of tiny slits in the t-shirt hemline, and voilà-- we have a drawstring skirt.

So, I cut off the white t-shirt right at the armpits, cut strips (including the hemline) about 7-9 inches wide (depending on stains) from all of Chad's shirts, then tiered them up from the bottom. Obviously, this required a lot more pinning, checking, and re-pinning than I can describe in one go, but that's basically how it happened. I liked the blue shirt that's the bottom layer best, so that's why there's two of it. And that's the only one I hemmed, since it's the lowest layer. I may still hem up the others if they get to be troublesome, but for now I like the raw edges. The slightly fancy top layer is from a skirt I have laying around and have been unwilling to get rid of, since it's still perfectly good fabric.

Finished product, before washing. The white line
 on the blue layer is the chalk I used to mark
 cutting lines-- I marked that one in the wrong place. 

Also: t-shirts are heavy. This is made from six shirts, which weighs it down. I hope that translates into the skirt not riding up and displaying more of me than I intended while I'm riding my bike in it (although I'm not holding my breath). As long as it doesn't fall off, though, it's all good.

What's next? No idea. NaNoWriMo is creeping up on me super-fast (are you a Wrimo? Let's be friends!), so I may have to put things away for a while and concentrate on what I'm writing.

What did you do this weekend?