#boatneck

The reason I was going to get rid of it is because of the turtleneck. The very, very, VERY small turtleneck, that made me feel like it was going to strangle me every time I wore it. And then I started thinking that having a sewing machine means that you can change things about clothes that you don't like....oh no, I'm going to start learning alterations and tailoring, aren't I? Oh. No.

So I came across this very excellent tutorial:

And I figured, I was going to get rid of that shirt anyway....what if I tried to take off the strangle-neck and make it into something wearable?

And then I got intimidated. I've never done anything like this before.

And then I remembered another turtleneck in my scrap pile, that was there because it doesn't really fit me very well:

I figured I could use this as a practice piece, because there's a lot more cloth in case I screw up (it's always been very baggy on me), and there's basically no way I would be wearing it again anyway.

So I started going through the tutorial:

I removed the turtleneck part and picked it apart

(Look at how much longer the purple turtleneck was compared to the blue!)

The tutorial was for a scoop-neck, but I always look better in a boat neck, so I marked the fabric with soap and cut a boat-neck neckline into the shirt (which was scary, but I was pleased with how it turned out!)

Then I followed the tutorial for how to measure and estimate the lengths of the strips for the front neckline and the back neckline seams:

Then I sewed them together

Panicked because one of the seam attempts caught in the sewing machine and was drawn UNDER THE FEED DOG PLATE which caused all kinds of problems including a broken needle! And I was worried that the fabric of the seam was so chewed up that I'd have to start over......

But then realized that the chewed-up part was going to be folded up and oversewn with the seam. So I pinned it up:

then got scared and added more pins

Matched it up to the shirt

And then I SEWED IT ON!

The shirt still doesn't fit at all, but I'm pretty pleased with the neckline now! (Oh no....does that mean I'm going to have to learn how to tailor an overly-baggy shirt?)