Upcycling Shirts

Recently I have been feeling like being creative.  I think it all started when I made a quilt for my new nephew who is due in a couple of weeks.  I suddenly wanted to keep making things and sewing, so I've tried a couple different projects.  Here is my most recent one

I had a few shirts in my closet that I never wear anymore.  The one below is the one I used for the base shirt because it still fit me great.

Please ignore the goofy look on my face but you can see that it still fits pretty good.  One reason I didn't like this shirt is that no matter what my bra always showed through those holes so I wanted cover them up.  I decided to add ruffles as a way to cover up those holes.

The second shirt I picked was just one that was really short on me.It was made of jersey so I didn't have to worry about fraying or trying to hem it.  So I cut the shirt apart.  I just cut right along the seams.  Then I cut the fabric up into 3" wide strips.

 Then I basted the strips.  I did this by using the longest stitch on my sewing machine.

I then took the bottom thread and pulled it so that the material bunched up.

I then arranged and pinned the the strips to the shirt. 

Then I sewed the strips in place on the shirt and trimmed off all the excess threads.  And Viola!

So What do you think?  I like how it looks laying down on the table.  I'm still deciding if I like how it looks on me, but either way I had a lot of fun making it!