Continuing my gift-making quest, the latest effort involved transforming an old, colorful T-shirt into a gift for one of my nieces.
I unfortunately have the habit of overthinking some simple things. I won’t even divulge how long I contemplated the best way to make the initial cut. Seems pretty straightforward, but I like to visualize things first before diving in, especially since I didn’t have a second bright blue T-shirt to sacrifice for the cause.
Having already made this handy strip of measuring paper, I used it to make the chalk lines across the T-shirt. At this point, I thought I was home free. Everything looked logically organized.
Only after I started cutting out the strips, which should’ve spooled into one continuous piece, did I realize my error.
After screwing up about half of the effort and trying two other things, I finally corrected my cutting pattern to achieve one continuous piece. Despite my cutting challenge, all was not lost. I got back on track by cutting out the lengths of fabric I needed.
Only a few of the strips had to be tied together with my fiasco pieces.
Starting with the four longer pieces, I looped them, doubled them up and then braided them, using a clipboard to help keep the growing braid in place.
I braided two more rows onto the first row, using just a slight modification to the braiding technique.
The moment of truth came when I tried the necklace on. I can never be sure how any fickle teenager will like anything, but I for one am very proud of the end product.