Upcycled Hem-less Tee-Skirt: a Tutorial by Bonnie of Fishstick Designs

Bonnie of Fishsticks Designs has a fantastic upcycling project for us today. I can totally see this one in Neapolitan colors. Or, as my Nana would say, chocvanstraw. All you need is three upcycleable tees to get started, although depending on the tees and the intended sizes you may be able to get more than one completed skirt out of three tees. You’ll find the free tutorial linked at the bottom of this post, and after you’ve checked that out you’ve also got to check out her blog. She has lots of her own sewing inspiration that she shares, and I can’t help but be inspired by how well she executes her to-do list. Like, entire wardrobes. It’s downright impressive. Thanks, Bonnie, for joining us!

WAIT! Before Bonnie takes over the show I need to say this: Get your skirts added to the Flickr pools! You can find the links in the right sidebar. You have until 8 pm Eastern TONIGHT to get them in there before the judges start making their picks and voting begins on Monday!

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I am so excited to be a guest here at crafterhours and to take part in Skirt Week! Thank you, Susan and Adrianna for inviting me to share and for putting together this great challenge! I am in awe of all the amazing skirts in the pool already. The judges definitely have their work cut out for them!

I’ve been up to my ears in little boy sewing around here lately so I was thrilled to have the opportunity to work on something feminine. It was such a nice change of pace, and my girls were definitely excited to have me finally sew something for them, too!

These skirts take no time at all to sew, and they put to use that pile of old tees that you’ve been saving. They skip hemming altogether and instead take advantage of the way that cotton jersey rolls up to add some interest. I see ready-to-wear tops and skirts finished like this all the time. It’s not only quick, but it adds a bit of fresh, flirty, modern style, too!

In not time at all, I turned this group of tees into. . . a maxi-skirt for my teenager.

Then I grabbed a few {ahem} larger tees to make . . .

. . . a mid-thigh length skirt for me.

Finally, I couldn’t leave out my oldest daughter. Thankfully, the elastic waistband and stretchy knit make these great for maternity wear, too. (Is that not the cutest pregnant belly ever?)

When choosing tees to recycle for this project, you want those that are made from cotton or cotton blend jerseys (not interlock or ribbed knits). You also want to choose tees that will give you at least 3″ up to about 6″ of ease in the hips of your finished skirt. I generally wear about a size 12, and I used XXLarge tees for my skirt. My finished skirt has about 5 1/2″ of ease through the hips. My girls’ skirts were made from smaller tees and have less ease since they’re both pretty tiny.

Ready to sew up one or two . . . or a dozen? I put the tutorial together in a downloadable, printable pdf file for you: The Upcycled Hem-less Tee-Skirt.