Another re-purpose men's t-shirts into a women's ruffle skirt

I'm still working through a pile of clothes that my husband decided needs to head to Goodwill. I pulled a couple of his old t-shirts out this week thinking that I would attempt to make a skirt for myself and I think that it turned out pretty darn good. Heck, if it didn't what would I have to lose?! I thought I would share with you how I made it.

I started with two old shirts that were in coordinating colors. They were both a size small so I didn't have as much material to work with as I would have wanted, so if you try to make one, the bigger the better!

The light brown was was a bit larger around the middle, so I used that as my base. I cut from armpit to armpit straight across. And then cut up one side seam so that you have a huge rectangle.

Then I took the bottom hem of the coordinating shirt and cut an inch and a half off of that to use as my drawstring. Set that piece aside, you won't need it until the end.

Then I started using what I had left of the shirt I used as my base and cut as large of a strip as I could. I even used the print in the skirt, I thought it was kind of funky.

Take that strip, measure it, and then cut it into equal parts for your ruffle. I ended up with nearly 6 inches, so I cut that into two equal strips of nearly 3 inches each. Because you are trying to salvage as much material as you can, my two strips were actually four (the seams were cut) so you will need to sew a new seam making a long seam on each of your pieces. That seems complicated, but you will end up with two long strips of fabric with one seam down each center of your material.

Then set to work on your other shirt. This shirt will be used only for the ruffles (aside from the hem that you set aside for your drawstring). I cut up the side of one seam to start with.

Then I continued to cut 3 inch wide strips from the bottom up. These are the materials that I ended up with: From top to bottom, 1 1/2 inch hem for the drawstring, 2 pieces of sewn together 3 inch wide strips from your base layer, Four 3 inch wide strips of the coordinating shirt, and your base layer.

Now you are ready to ruffle your layers. I set my machine to the highest tension setting and the longest stitch (on my machine it's an 8 tension and a 4 length stitch). You then sew at the top of each strip of fabric that you have. Do not back stitch. It should look like this when you are done.

Then line up your first strip along the bottom of your base right sides together. I had to stretch the ruffle out a bit and still used one and a half strips on the bottom layer to make it fit the length. Sew along the first layer.

Add your second ruffle of coordinating fabric hitting about 3/4 of the way up past your first layer. Pin and sew across.

Continue to add layers until you run out. I wish I had one more layer, but I ran out of material, so I stopped where I did, about 8 inches from the top. I serged the top edge to prepare it for making my casing for my drawstring.

Fold your skirt in half now making sure your ruffles are flat (I usually hold it together and shake it down). Sew the side seam from top to bottom.

Make sure you leave about two inches at the top open on your seam to add your drawstring.

I like the rough look of the serged edge so I folded the top layer and made the casing on the outside. Iron it down into place about an inch down. Pin and sew into place. Thread your drawstring through leaving equal lengths of material on both sides to tie.

That's it! Two shirts made one cute ruffle skirt!