Welcome to INDIVIDUAL, nzgirl’s DIY guide to turning your stuff into better stuff . . . for $10 or less.
adj: of, for or characteristic of a single person. Designed for use by one person.
noun: distinctive person
Summer is on its way and with it comes the possibility that one day soon we may well be able to venture outside without freezing our girlie bits off. To celebrate the changing of seasons this time we’re looking at ways of individualising the humble t-shirt.
But first, a brief lesson in t-shirt history because you never know when you will be called upon to impress your friends and family with some t-shirt trivia.
The t-shirt as we know it is essentially an American creation dating from WW1 when American soldiers 
came into contact with the style and good taste of the Europeans.
The American soldiers wore hot, scratchy woollen undershirts whereas the Europeans, in their infinite wisdom, had lightweight cotton ones which were much more comfortable to wear. As hard as it is to imagine, you have to remember that we are talking about a time before the invention of light weight merino wool clothing.
By the 1920s t-shirt was an official word in the American English dictionary. However it wasn’t until the 1950s that the t-shirt graduated from ‘undergarment’ to ‘garment in its own right’. Before that time wandering round in a t-shirt was tantamount to wandering around in your bra and knickers – fine in the privacy of your own home, but not really the done thing in public.
History lesson over. Now for the practical…
The great thing about t-shirts is that, unless you are going for top shelf labels, they are reasonably cheap to buy. The not so great thing about t-shirts is that they can look old fast. T-shirt fabric, the very thing that makes them so great to wear, is also the same thing that contributes to their early demise.
Knit fabric isn’t known for its longevity, or its ability to stay in shape. And, as a rule of thumb, when you start to get white marks under the arms (or, heaven forbid, 
yellow ones) it’s time to say goodbye. So here are a couple of ideas for breathing new life into your old t-shirts.
If you have a fav t-shirt with a design on the front that really has come to the end of its life but you are in denial, consider cutting the design out and sewing it onto a new t-shirt. There is still some mileage left in that whole ‘deconstruction’ thing so go crazy with the sharp scissors.
In my case I attacked my much-loved insect print t-shirt, carefully cutting around the insects which I then placed onto the new and much more socially acceptable t-shirt. I tacked them down first to get an idea of where I wanted the images to go and then I hand-sewed them onto the new t-shirt. It’s a good idea to leave about a 5-7mm gap from the edge of the cut out image as while knit fabrics don’t really fray, they still don’t like being stitched right along their edge.
It’s very important to keep the tension on your stitches nice and loose – you don’t want all your hard work undone when the stitches break the first time that you 
try to get it over your head. You could also consider doing a zig-zag stitch around the very edge, just to make sure that it stays in place.
The second way of going about this is to take a new t-shirt and come up with a whole new design. Shops are always having special deals on t-shirts so instead of spending a small fortune on a ‘label’ consider making your own statement with your own, individual creation.
I found some interesting fabric which I then cut out and positioned onto a t-shirt. Ideally you want to match the type of fabric to the t-shirt, (ie. stick to the knits) but if you simply HAVE to use something else, consider backing it first with a lightweight, iron-on 
interfacing, to stop it fraying.
Tack it down to begin with, so you can work out where you want it all to go, then sew it with small but loose stitches, leaving that 5-7mm margin around the edges. Machine zig-zag around the edge once you are done, if you want extra security.
Once your t-shirt is done you can sit back, relax, and look forward to warmer weather.
Katy McRae
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