Ruffle Baseball Tee

I like baseball tees. I always have. They remind me of laid-back casual summer days.

But they are not so girly and sweet. And I also like to look girly and sweet.

Anvil and Banana Republic

So when I had two shirts that I wanted to experiment with...

 I came up with the best of both.

This:

Here's the how-to:

1. I measured 3 inches away from the seem at each shoulder and marked those spots with a pin. I did this to the front and the back sides of the shirt.

2. Then I drew a temporary line from each of those points to the bottom seem where the sleeve seam is. I also did this to the front and back sides of the shirt.

3. I then cut along those lines,

 used a seem ripper along the neck of the shirt,

 and ended up with these pieces

4. I used the sleeve pieces as a pattern to cut out sleeve pieces from the other shirt making sure to allow for seems. I used the bottom of the shirt where there was an existing finished edge so I wouldn't have to finish the edge of my new sleeve. The sleeve pieces that you are going from won't lay exactly flat but just get it as flat as you can.

 I ended up with pieces like this.

5. Fold the sleeves in half horizontally, matching the front side facing front side. Sew a seem where I've indicated with the red mark.

6. With the tank-like piece turned inside-out, match up the sleeves (also inside-out) to the tank piece and pin in place. Sew all along where you have pinned.

When you turn it back with the outside facing out, it will look like this. The spot that I have the arrow pointing to was a little tricky to sew. But it's okay for it to look a little funny here, because you will be sewing a ruffle over it.


7. I then cut out strips to be my ruffles. I just followed the stripes on my material, but if your material is not striped, then make sure to cut your strips straight. Each strip was about 2 1/2 inches tall and 13 inches long.

Make your ruffles by sewing a big straight stitch on the edge of your pieces and then pulling one string at the end to bunch.

 8. I then sewed my ruffle along the top of the sleeve over top of the neck lining, making sure to match the ruffle to the edge of the sleeve.

Measure down 1 1/2 inch from your last ruffle and sew the next one on straight across. Repeat until you have as many ruffles on your sleeve as you would like.

Embellish as you'd like!

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