How to Turn a T-Shirt into a Bardot Top

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Published by Retro Chick at May 20, 2015

In Monday’s post I mentioned I had cut the neck out of my t-shirt.

I did it in a rather blasé fashion, assuming everyone would know how to do this. Frankly I assumed this because if there is some kind of customisation that *I* can do then I automatically assume everyone else got there first years ago due to my total lack of skill at anything that involves scissors, glue, yarn, thread or anything else that might be considered crafty.

Since then, however, I have been inundated with thousands* of people asking me how I cut the necks out of my T-Shirts.
(*three)

Therefore I have decided today to knock up a little tutorial of sorts, with which you can turn a dull t-shirt into a flattering bardot style neck top.

First up, you will need a T-Shirt and a pair of scissors.

You can use proper dressmaking scissors, I don’t have those, because that would imply that I was ever going to do any dressmaking. As long as they are sharp, any scissors will do. These ones are cute nails scissors I got from Tiger that normally live in my Derby kit bag!

The baggier your t-shirt to start with, the wider your neckline will be. I often do this on skinny women’s fit t-shirts and it gives a wide scoop neckline. This one was a small size “unisex” t-shirt that I hadn’t yet cut up that I bought at Secret Cinema last summer. It’s a looser fit so creates a wider, almost off the shoulder look. Do this with a big baggy t-shirt and you’re going to get that sexy, hanging off one shoulder “hey, it’s Sunday and I just got out of bed in full make up” style top like they only wear on TV.

This has a cute print, but I will never wear it because it is not a flattering look as it is. I don’t know why I am pulling this face, presumably the bad neckline made me sad. I look like this in all the before pictures I took, and you can’t go back and re take them once you’ve hacked up a t-shirt!

Before

Lay your t-shirt flat on the floor, make sure your shoulder seams are lined up properly and everything, or otherwise you will have a wonky neck and you will be sad.

I use the point of the scissors to sort of “score” a line in the fabric so I can see a bit where I’m cutting. If you had such a thing as dressmakers chalk you could use that, or you could just wing it, but basically you are going to cut a smooth scooped line from halfway between the neck and shoulder seam, down under close to the collar at the front and up to the same point on the opposite shoulder.

So just lay it flat and cut!

I’m not sure whether I did this one a bit wonky under the pressure of knowing I was trying to cut it for a blog post. But if I did it doesn’t really show once on!

I also rolled the sleeves up a little, which I could put a stitch in to keep them like that, if I knew where the needle and thread were, which I don’t.

There. Much happier in the after picture!

After

bardot top tutorial

So there you go! Now when you find t-shirts with cute prints on them you can make them into flattering tops instead so you’ll get more wear out of them, hurrah!