College Daze: So if you are like me you still have tons of old t-shirts from your college days that you treat like sacred artifacts, wear only on special occasions, are held together with 1 or more safety pins and you would never let go of.  However, the day comes when you can no longer justify it as a shirt and the thought of making it a shop rag is out of the question.  In the past I’ve secretly conducted quite burnings in the back yard and then buried the ashes to taps. BUT NO MORE!

After buying a few cool bibs for my boy I thought “I could make those, but cooler”, so like the rest of you did last Father’s Day I got out one of my sewing machines and went to work.

Step 1.  Cry a little and tell your old friend he is going to a better place, then trace a bib shape onto your old shirt.

Step 2. Hold your breath as you cut it out and try not to think about the fact that at this point their is no going back to wearing this shirt.

Step 3.  Sew on some “Extra Wide Double Fold Bias Tape” (found at a fabric store) to cover the edges of the T-shirt and give it a nice finished look.

Step 3A. Here is a detail of the Extra Wide Double Fold Bias Tape, as you can see it comes pre-folded and you simple sandwich your T-shirt in between the layers and sew it closed.

Step 4.  Add a closure, I like snaps and got this handy little snap and eyelet plier tool at the fabric store when I bought the bias tape.  You could also use Velco, or make some tie strings, whatever you like.

I folded the ends of the bias tape behind the bib and used the snaps to cover the ends so that it looked really nice.  I also liked the look of leaving the neck area the original T-shirt collar, but you could also cut that and trim it with bias tape.

Step 5. Time for some field testing.  It fit really well and looked pretty sharp, if I do say so myself.

Tips:

• Depending on what kind of bias tape you buy you need to be careful on how sharp you make the corners.  The bigger the radius the easier it is to trim without too much puckering.
• You can also skip the bias tape and use your serger to finish the edges or simple fold the fabric and hem it it finish the edges.
• Now you can buy a new cool shirt to replace the one you made the bid from, Like I did from Urban Medium.