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Gear Up For Game Day

Game day is approaching once again here in Happy Valley, so this week I am going to teach you some cute ways to redesign your basic Penn State tee.

For these designs any t-shirt will work, however you may want to buy your shirt one size bigger since you will be cutting off a lot of material.

I’d also like to note that before starting you should try on the shirt so you can get a sense of where you want to make the cuts.

Design #1: The Halter

• First cut off the sleeves by cutting along the seam on both sides. This leaves you with too much fabric over your shoulders, so try the shirt on again and decide how thick you want the fabric around your neck to be. I would suggest cutting at least 1/2 of an inch away from the collar on both sides.
• Next cut off the bottom of the shirt. This is totally up to you. How long do you want the shirt to be?
• Flip over the shirt. Now you are going to basically cut off the back of the shirt, only leaving two strips of fabric. One strip is to tie around your neck and the other is to tie around your back. (The fabric to tie around your back should be much thicker) I recommend making this cut across the back, starting and finishing at the bottom point of the arm holes. Cut around the collar to create the strip to tie around your neck.
• Lastly, cut both of those strips in half. Pull on them to make the edges smoother and the fabric more giving.

Design #2: Side Tie

• First cut off the sleeves by cutting along the seam on both sides. Again, cut the excess fabric that is over your shoulders, however do not cut as much as you would for the halter top design. I recommend cutting at least 2 inches from the collar on each side.
• Next cut the bottom of the shirt to your desired length.
• Lastly, cut down the side of the shirt, starting at the bottom point of the arm hole and following down until the end. Repeat this procedure for the other side of the shirt.
• At this point it doesn’t look much like a shirt. To finish the design pull the pieces of fabric to make the material more giving. Then tie the bottom corner from the front flap on the left side to the bottom corner from the back flap on the left side. Repeat this step for the right side.

Design #3: Cut out/Lace Up

• This design only focuses on the top portion of the shirt. You can cut off the sleeves or trim the shirt into a crop top to make it more unique
• The goal is to cut the t-shirt into a V-neck, while leaving the collar portion of the shirt untouched.
• Decide how deep you want to make the neckline. Take a pen and place a mark in the center of the shirt at your desired depth.
• Since you are leaving the collar, fold the shirt in half to create a point of entry for the scissors.
• Cut along the seam of the collar until you reach approximatly one inch from the top of the shirt.
• Cut diagonally toward the point you made with your pen, creating the V-neck
• Create slots using a scissor or box cutter/razor blade along the edges of the neckline. Space the holes out evenly along both sides. (I recommend at least four holes on each side)
• Take a shoelace and thread it through the holes as if you were lacing up a pair of sneakers.

Design #3 (http://tailgateteesbygabby.com)

Happy game day!