Holey Tee, Batman!

There are few things I don't like about thrift stores. The primary annoyance is unattended children, but a close second is staples. Yep, staples. I don't know about your experience, but most of the thrift shops near me use staples to attach their price tags to clothing. To their credit, they usually try to staple them to the tag inside the collar. but if there isn't a tag, they go right through the fabric. Honestly, I can't really think of a better solution from their point of view. I'm sure staples are cheaper than price tag guns, and I do appreciate the savings that are passed on to the consumer, namely me. But still, staples. Grrr...

Let's look at an innocent victim of this pricing dilemma, shall we? I picked up this tee a while back for $1, I think. I love the indigo color and the low-cut back.

Apparently, the previous owner wasn't so keen on the back though. She had removed the tag, presumably to wear it backward without people noticing her t-shirt was backward.

This, in turn, led to confusion when the thrift store clerk went to price the tee and, not immediately seeing a tag, stapled it to the back of the collar. Only they stapled it to the front of the collar by mistake, not realizing it was intended to be a low-back, rather than low-front, top.

And of course, it wasn't until I got it home and went to pry off the price tag, that I noticed the damage. And of course, the obligatory post-thrifting laundry cycle only made the holes bigger. I gave the tee a chance and wore it once... on a Saturday when I wasn't going anywhere. But I couldn't help but be self-conscious about these little holes right on my chest. I was afraid everyone would notice, especially with my pale skin peeking through the dark fabric. So I pulled out my pile of t-shirt remnants from refashions past, and went to work.

This turquoise will do nicely.

I cut my pieces, laid them out in a pleasing design, and pinned them to the inside of my shirt, making sure one of the pieces was over the tiny holes.

Then I realized that I was going to want to sew with the right-side up, to make my stitches looked good from the outside. So I repinned my pieces from the outside, and removed the inside pins.

I also pinned some paper to the inside of the fabric (like the stuff they wrap your fragile purchases in at home good stores). This will stabilize the fabric so it doesn't stretch weirdly while I sew.

Once everything is sewn into place, the paper rips off quite easily since my sewing machine conveniently perforated it for me.

Finally, I took my nice sharp scissors and trimmed the excess fabric from the inside as well as cut away the dark blue from the rectangles on the outside, being careful not to nick the turquoise underneath.

Now I'm not self-conscious about the holes in my t-shirt because I made them on purpose!