Tied up.

Tied up.

Browsing through Etsy shops of homemade clothes is like traveling through another dimension of fashion space and time. So many of the sellers use innovative, surprising techniques to merge different aesthetics into one article of clothing. I’ve always wanted to make my own Etsy-inspired Frankenstein garment, so I decided to combine the romantic lace-up trend with a relaxed T-shirt (a winning combination). It’s super easy—I’ll show you how.

What you’ll need:

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  • A T-shirt of any kind
  • Straight pins
  • Scissors
  • A sewing machine or needle and thread
  • Thread that matches the T-shirt
  • One foot of ribbon
  • Two feet of suede cord (or any kind of cord, really!)

How to do it:

Step One

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Lay the T-shirt out, folded in half so that one sleeve is facing up, and one sleeve is facing your work surface (hidden from view).

Step Two

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You’ll be cutting the shirt’s collar to make a V-neck. Find the center of the front collar. From there, place a straight pin at the point below it where you’d like the deepest part of the V to be.

Step Three

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Cut the V-shape out of the front of the T-shirt, and you’ll end up with something like this:

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Step Four

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Fold the raw edges of the V-neck under a half-inch, then pin them down.

Step Five

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Using a sewing machine or needle and thread, sew a zigzag stitch around the collar to make a nicely finished edge:

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Step Six

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Cut six one-inch strips of ribbon. Fold them in half, then pin them to the V-neck, like I did in the photo above. Make sure they’re pinned beneath the edge you just sewed down (on the inside of the shirt), then stitch them into place.

Step Seven

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Take the cord and lace it through the ribbons, like you would with shoelaces. I added an iron-on patch to my T-shirt to give it a little something extra, and that’s it! ♦