- 1). Selecting fabric: Many fabric stores now have an eco-friendly fabric section. You can also find organic fabric on the Internet. Determining what organic means can be difficult--some fabrics are organic but are not "certified organic." Certified organic means the fabric is made in a mill that holds a certification to make organic fabric. There are many bodies for certification. Because an organic fabric was not made in a mill that has organic certification does not necessarily mean the fabric was not produced in accordance with the standards of certification.
- 2). Selecting your pattern: Find a T-shirt pattern. A common T-shirt style generally has five pieces: two arms, a front piece, a back piece, and a neck piece. The pattern will include information on how much fabric you need to make your T-shirt.
- 3). Cutting: Lay out your fabric on a smooth surface. Set the pattern on top of your fabric making sure you coordinate the direction of your fabric with the direction of your pattern. Cut the fabric and pattern together, along the edges of the pattern. If you are reusing a pattern, trace along the edges of a pattern with fabric chalk onto the fabric. Cut long the edges of the markings.
- 4). Sewing: Sew the T-shirt inside-out so that when completed, the sewn edge will be on the inside of the shirt and the face of the fabric will be on the outside of the shirt. Use an overlock sewing machine, which is commonly called a serger, to sew the body of the T-shirt and arms together. The pattern you select will have instructions on the order in which to sew your pieces together. Once the body and arms of the shirt are sewn, sew the collar on the shirt. The collar will be slightly smaller than the opening, so be sure to stretch the collar as you sew.
- 5). Finishing: Hem the bottom of the shirt and sleeves with a coverstitch machine. A coverstitch machine allows the knit to stretch without breaking the stitches. An alternative method would be to use an overlock machine along the end and hem along the overlock stitch with a single needle machine. This will not allow the thread to stretch in the same way, but will give a similar effect.
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