Four Shirts: 3 T-shirt modifications.

Recently, I got 4 crew-neck t-shirts to wear as part of the staff shooter team at Pacifica Archery. I don't like crew-necks, so I decided that some t-shirt modifications were in order, especially since they were all essentially the same exact t-shirt. I wanted a bit more variety.

I decided to keep one crew-neck shirt, as is, but wanted to modify the other three. I wanted to make 2 v-necks and one tank top. There are countless instructions on how to modify t-shirts.

For the first shirt, I wanted a simple V-neck that reused the ribbing. The V cannot be greater than 2 inches or else this technique won't work; the ribbing won't have enough "stretch". The summary of the technique is as follows:

1. Using a seam ripper, undo the ribbing from the shoulders to the front of the t-shirt.
2. Measure out less than 2 inches from the middle of the shirt. In the photo below, I measured out 1.5 inches and drew an approximate V from the shoulder to the new spot.
3. Pin the ribbing back down, careful to ease it into place.
4. Sew the ribbing into place.

Here's a good Tutorial that I've used before.

Here are the two shirts -- the original crew neck and the v-neck shirt.

For the second shirt, I wanted a tank-top, so I took one favorite tank tops and laid it over the t-shirt.  I took chalk and drew out lines for the front & back neck as well as the front and back sleeves. These are not symmetrical, so there are four drawing marks.

BEFORE I cut, I also added a 1/2 seam allowance, because I wanted to sew down these edges so it wouldn't unravel.

I pinned my 1/2 inch seam allowance and sewed down the edges.

Here's the finished tank top to wear for those really hot days when doing field archery.

The last shirt is probably the simplest one to make. I wanted a softer neckline. I kept the sleeves as-is.

Using a seam ripper, I removed all of the ribbing, cut a V-neckline (like above), and then sewed it down with a 1/2" seam allowance. This gave me a softer V-neckline than the one with the ribbing.

So, there you go...one shirt, three t-shirt modifications. Now, I'm ready for a summery of archery!