DIY Cropped Varsity Top (Shiny Thoughts)

Crop it like it’s hot

Got that plain oversized T-shirt hanging around that you don’t know what to do with? Lets get making something with it!

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

Mesh fabric, silver fabric (any soft fun fabrics really), fabric scissors, ruler, measuring tape, pins, waistband elastic, paper and pencil, sewing machine, needle and thread, mini safety pins, a big flat table surface.

HOW YOU DO IT:

1 – Pop the T-shirt on and tuck it up to your desired crop length. Safety pin it there and then mark the boundaries of where you want your varsity letters to sit with more safety pins. Take it off and lay your t-shirt flat.

2 – Using a ruler, mark where you want the length of your top to be. Add an extra inch and a half which you’ll use to fold your top over and thread elastic inside and cut along the ruler edge. If you have big boobs, you might like to add a little more length at the front of your top!

3 – Roll the end of the top over by a centimetre and then again by an inch and pin. Using your machine, stitch around the edge to make a tube at the bottom of your top. Make sure to leave a couple of centimetres unstitched by the side of your top so that you can thread in your elastic! You can hand stitch this back up at the end!

4 – Pop the top back on and mark where you want to cut the elastic. stitch the ends firmly with a sewing machine and then stitch the hem up again.

5 – Find yourself some numbers! Draw your numbers on to paper and then cut them out. Use the paper as a template on the fabric you wan to use. Pin the layers together and then cut them out. For a double later effect, just take the top layer fabric, pin it to the bottom layer fabric and cut out. Either machine or hand stitch the fabric layers together (depending on the type of fabric and whether your machine likes to chomp through it!)

6 – Place your fabric numbers to your top within the pinned boundaries you set and pin securely. Don’t forget to try the top on again one last time! Stitch the numbers to the front of your top using your machine and then hold up your top with pride.