This American Life

Any of you familiar with this excellent radio program hosted by Ira Glass? My husband and I are longtime listeners and have often patronized their online store in search of gifts for each other as well as a way of supporting the program.

One year he bought me a This American Life t-shirt (to go along with the one he already had) which never quite worked out. It was an awkward fit at first, then proceeded to shrink in the wash. But I couldn't bear to let it go to waste.

 

Although I detest sewing with knits, I feel moderately comfortable modifying and resizing t-shirts. This is what I started out with:

 And here is the final product:

 The idea was loosely based on one I found while perusing Dana's MADE blog. I simply cut off the top right below the sleeves, gathered it onto a piece of calico, made it into a casing, and threaded elastic through it. Strips of the leftover knit (no hemming needed) were then sewn on to make straps.

My favorite part was the pocket, made out of one of the sleeves. I kept the hem of the sleeve intact so I wouldn't have to hem the edge of the pocket. I did, however, have to hand stitch it to the dress to prevent any inevitable odd puckering or stretching that would have occurred with a sewing machine.

 My daughter seemed the epitome of Americana as she chewed on a piece of sour grass that morning.