Upcycling a T-shirt Into a Crop Top

My granddaughter, Elyza, was going home today but before she left she wanted one more sewing session.  I told her we would have time this morning for something quick and easy.  She wanted to make a bandeau.  Seemed simple enough!  We should have been able to churn out a dozen of those babies. 

This was a spur of the moment sewing session so we needed to pull together what I had on hand.  I knew I had some knits in my stash but I decided on making the first one from a white T-shirt I had picked up at the thrift store.  A bandeau top is very simple – no pattern is necessary - just take her measurements like you would for a bra size.  Measure around and up.  I told her if we liked the look of the tube top we would raid my fabric stash for some other knits.  “But I don’t want a tube top, whatever that is.  I want a bandeau!”  I explained that when I was her age we called bandeau tops, tube tops.  She looked at me like I was off my rocker, “That is so wrong.  And your generation also called flip flops, thongs!”  (The trick with teenagers is finding a common language to communicate in.)

We measured her and we needed a piece of t-shirt 38 X 9 inches (allowing for the elastic casings top and bottom.  We could take this right out of the bottom of the shirt and I could make a market tote out of what was left over.  We measured it out and I showed Elyza where to cut. 

I left her to it and went to find elastic for the project.  That’s when I found out I didn’t have enough for one bandeau top much less dozen.  “Ok, change of plans.  Let’s make a crop top instead.  They do still call them crop tops?” 

It seemed that they did and Elyza was intrigued with the idea of a crop top.  I showed her how to cut the rest of the shirt to get the basic shape of the top.  I had her slip it on and we did a little more fitting.  I opened the side seams and took it in under the arms.  This reduced the gap in the arm holes.  Finally turned the cut edges over a quarter inch to finish them off.  (I used a zig zag stitch for this because of the stretch.)  We were all finished with a cute little crop top and we still had the piece for the bandeau top which we can finish on her next visit.

This little scoop neck crop top was so easy to upcycle form an oversized t-shirt from the thrift shop.

The upcycled crop top is affordable and easy to sew

There are so many ways to wear this upcycled crop top.  We only had time for a photo session over  maxi sundress. 

My 14 year old granddaughter loves her upcycled crop top but sometimes with moody teenagers it is hard to tell!  She will be back again before school starts and we can make the bandeau top then.