DIY Stripey Cropped Tee

In the week leading up to my Italy trip, I was avidly following garypeppergirl (Nicole Warne) on instagram, because she happened to be travelling along the Italian coastline at the time and her posts were making me super excited for my holiday! Anyway, in one picture she posted she was wearing a stripey cropped t-shirt, and I immediately thought - damn, I really want to gallivant around Italy in a stripey cropped tee. For some reason, stripes scream "Italian Summer Holiday" to me, and so half my suitcase ended up being filled with stripes. I didn't own a cropped stripey shirt, though, and wasn't about to pay 138 euro for this one - so I made one. I went on the lookout for a stripey shirt at my local thrift stores. I found the perfect DIY candidate after hardly any searching (because thrift shops are full of these kinds of shirts): Now, a striped shirt makes this DIY incredibly simple. All you need to do is fold the shirt up to the length you want it, then go down one stripe, or about one inch (important, because otherwise it'll be too short after hemming!) Using the edge of a stripe as your guide, cut all the way across with fabric scissors. Ta da! Then, fold the fabric up into the shirt one-stripe's width, all the way around the bottom of the shirt (or about 1 inch, if your stripes are wider than mine), pin, and sew using a straight-stitch. And if you don't own a sewing machine, you could do this step by hand - it wouldn't take that long. You could easily stop here if you like the look of cropped shirts with long sleeves - however as I was going to be heading into the middle of summer, I decided to make it short-sleeved as well. On both arms, I counted down from the shoulder seam 10 stripes - then cut along this line. Then I just did the same for the arms as I did for the body - fold up, pin and sew! And there you have it - a simple, stripey cropped tee, perfect for some summer adventuring! (And see my last post where I wore it around an Italian village). Much love, Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr