The Room to Grow top
I love this top soooo much! The second I had the idea for it I got really excited – but to be honest, it turned out even better than I’d hoped! It even looks this cute when you’re not pregnant, which in my book is a total plus!
Now I like my tops to be fitted, but this top would be just as easy to make a little looser as well, and I think it would look just as cute! You could even adapt it be a tunic length or a dress if you can find a large enough tshirt to start with.
I’ve assumed seam allowances of 1/2″, and used a serger – but you could just as easily use the zig zag stitch on a regular sewing machine and get just as good results.
So lets do it!
What you’ll need:
- A large mens tshirt (the larger the better, especially if you want yours to be less fitted than mine)
- A tshirt that you like the fit of to use as a template
What do to:
1) Very carefully, take the large tshirt apart by cutting along all the seams
2) Lay your template tshirt on top of the back piece, and cut around it, leaving about 1/2″ for seam allowance (you may also want to leave the shirt long, that’s what i did). Also make sure you re-cut the arm holes to be the right size.
3) With the front part of the shirt, measure down 10″ from the middle of the shoulder. Cut the shirt width ways at this point, and also cut a “V” that starts from the shoulder and ends in the centre. You’ll want to make sure the shoulder width on the front and back pieces are the same. Notice how the width ways cut goes along the bust line and through the arm holes.
4) Now lay the two front bodice pieces on top of the back piece with the right sides facing each other and sew along the shoulder seam
5) Now we’ll need to finish the neckline. Turn in 1/2″ around the whole neckline and top stitch using your preferred method (i used a zig zag stitch)
6) Now turn the top around so that the right side is facing outwards, and cross over the front section by 2″ . Now you may notice that there is a print on the inside of my shirt. That’s because my original shirt has a printed design on the front, and so I very sneakily used the front of the original T as the back piece of my new top – and turned the design to be on the inside of my top. It’s a clever little trick!
7) Now for the bottom of your top. Since everyones tshirts will be different, you’ll now need to measure how much to gather the bottom from of your top. When doing this, you’ll need to make sure that the bottom stays a total of 2″ wider than the top of the bodice, as we’ll need to finish the armholes off. So for me I ended up needing to gather 6″ in the middle of the bottom section.
The easiest way to gather is to set your sewing machine to the widest stitch, and sew a straight stitch along the edge. Do not backstitch. Pull one of the threads, whilst holding the fabric stationary, and the fabric will gather right up!
8 ) Lay your top bodice right side up
Lay your gathered bodice bottom on top of the top bodice, with right sides together. Make sure that your gathered section meets up with the edges of your crossed over pieces.
Then sew along the bust line
9) Now sew along the side seams of the shirt
10) We’ll need to make the sleeves smaller, so use your template tshirt as a guide again (and don’t forget to leave 1/2″ of seam allowance!)
11) Sew along the seam of sleeves and then turn right side around
12) Attach the sleeves to the top. I find the easiest way to do this is to place the sleeves on the inside of top and sew.
13) Your done!!! Wear and enjoy!!
p.s. thanks sooooo much for voting for me yesterday! If you have a free second, would you mind voting for me again today? You can vote once a day!!
Thanks gals!! xoxo
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I can’t wait to try this, it’s so cute! :)
what a great design!
What a cute shirt! And I have the perfect T-shirt to use to try it with! One question — where is the horizontal seam supposed to hit, above the bust, in the middle of the bust? I have a long torso, so I often have to alter things so that it doesn’t hit my bust at a funny spot and draw lots of attention to my bust!
Hi Beth!! I should have explained that shouldn’t i? hehe. The horizontal seam should hit through the middle of the bust – so it’s probably a good idea to measure from your shoulder to your bust point to check if 9″ finished length (10″ raw) is going to be enough for you!!
Thanks for asking!! xoxo
Thank you for this tute! I have been searching for some maternity short sleeve shirts for this summer and just can’t swallow paying $20 for a shirt I am going to wear for 3 months! This perfect and stylish. Thank you, thank you! Now I am off to make The Turn About the Room dress. I love this site!
I’m so glad you like it Sara!! I’m exactly the same – it’s so upsetting to pay a lot for maternity clothing, when you know you won’t use it for long!!
This is great! My husband may have to keep an eye on his t-shirts from now on ;)
hehe I think my poor hubby has given up on his tees!!!
http://wp.me/ppIPk-jL
I made the top !!! LOVE IT going to try again now that I understand what Im doing. Thanks so much for the how to it was GREAT and easy.
Oooo Alison!!! It looks gorgeous!! YOu did such a fabulous job! THanks for sharing! xoxo
It’s nice to see it on a non-preggo woman! It looks so cute!
Funny as I was doing IVF when I saw the blog and I was praying for prego. At the time I was not prego but NOW Im 6 weeks along. Cant wait to make more of the them. I have all kinds of ideas to enhance it. Again your blog inspires me.
I made this for my friend who is early in her pregnancy =) I tried it on when I finished, and honestly, as a non-pregger girl, I would wear this! It’s super cute!!! Thanks for the tutorial!
Question– do you just serge the seams, without sewing? I’m on the verge of inheriting a serger, AND am very excited to try using it with knit materials, as my sewing machine is about seventy years old and doesn’t have any fancy stitches. Awesome pattern; I’m really excited to try it out! Thanks!!!
Yes you just serge them!! I love sergers, it really makes things so easy :) Basically what it does is it sews and trims the seam allowance at the same time – so you are basically skipping a step! yay!
Until then if you sewing machine has a zig zag stitch, you could use that on knits too :)
I hope that helps!! xoxo
that’s awesome! thanks for replying!! looking forward to trying this out very soon :-)