My first t-shirt recon

Our landlord neglected to pay the garbage-collection bill, so our dumpster wasn't emptied for the entire month of May.

Yeah. Pretty nasty. But since there was no room in the dumpster, someone deposited a whole bunch of clothes beside it - in a plastic bag, mind you, keeping them at least somewhat clean. So thanks to the kindness of that stranger (actually I think I know who it was), I took my first stab at modding a t-shirt.

Among my neighbor's cast-off clothes was a nice red t-shirt that was just a bit too short and snug. Also in the bag I found an olive green long-sleeved T in a similar fabric, and that became a stripe (starting narrower in back, widening from the sides to the front - more length makes room, like a bust dart or short rows. Thank you, knit design book, for explaining how it works!)

The button band and collar are from the tan shirt (found in the laundry room wastebasket) that I used for last week's skirt. they were trickier to apply than I expected - not because I switched the holes to the opposite side (men's shirt into women's) but because of the cutting and shaping and folding I had to do for the wider neckline. I knew I'd only get one chance to get it right. I hadn't intended for it to stick out like that - it ended up more curved than V-neck - but I do really like how the collar points sit way back at the top of the shoulders. The buttons are from an old silk blouse of mine (boy, do I have exciting plans for that blouse), but there were only five, so I searched my stash for a 6th…and now the bottom button has a little duck.

The colors of this shirt remind me of bowling shoes. I wish I had a pair to wear with it.