VINTAGE WRAP SHIRT

There were so many gorgeous pieces of clothing in the 60’s and 70’s that had gone out of style over the years. Fashion is turning around and looking towards our past now, reliving days gone by and pulling out those old vests and vintage clothes.

Here’s a piece recreated from a vintage magazine, of a classic wrap shirt. The shirt is very simple. It’s basically a rectangle with a hole for your head, and a long tie to hold it together and add a bit of style. Perfect to wear with your high-waisted skirts or anything that would look even more fab with a bow.

Materials:

Measuring tape
IL019 Fog Green (1 yard)
Thread
Iron

Measure where on your shoulders you would like the shirt to end, and make sure that measurement is wider than your bust in the front (larger busted women – you may need to make the front panel wider than the back panel).

I’ve decided to have the shirt fall about 1/3 down my arms. The width is 28″.

Measure from where in the front you want the shirt to sit, over your shoulder, and down your back to where you want the shirt to end. Mine is 18″ for the front and back, for a total of 36″ in length.

Those two measurements are what size to cut your rectangle for your shirt. In the very center, cut out an oval and a slit for your head to fit through, in whatever design you’d like for your shirt.

Now cut out two thin, long strips about 1″ wide. ‘ You’ll want to fold, press, and straight stitch one end of these strips, and the turn them out in a tube.’  Like so:

These ties are going to attach to the front of your shirt, to tie behind your back and keep the shirt closed in the front.

Iron the two long, selvage edges of your rectangle in at the seam allowance. Fold over and iron ‘¼” once, then twice. Before top stitching, pin your two small straps at the front.

I pinned mine in about 2″ above the front selvage edge. Stitch across the strap to secure it in place.

Then tuck it into the side hem and top stitch across the side.

I also stitched at the edge of the seam to secure it.

Don’t forget to hem the front edge of your shirt!

Next, cut a very long strip of fabric that is 3″ wide, or however wide you want the tie that wraps around the back and ties in the front to be. You’ll need to cut two of them out, at about ~80″ in length. If you need to seam them to make them longer, make sure to iron the seam open. Don’t sew these two ties together into a tube yet.’ Find the center of the tie, and the center of the back of the shirt. Match these two points together, and the pin the shirt and tie right sides together. Pin the second tie to the first, sandwiching the shirt between the two layers of the tie. Stitch along the seam allowance on the tie.

There’s two easy ways you can do this next step.

The first way is to carefully push the shirt into the tie material, pin and stitch all the way around, leaving a small 2″ area in the tie’s seam to turn it right side out.

The second way is to stitch the tie’s seam allowance, leaving it open where the shirt is. Turn it right side out and iron the seam allowance under, then top stitch around the edge of the tie.

There are actually a few other ways to attach the shirt to the tie, but I’ve found that these two ways produce the nicest results. Use what works best for you!’ 

Whatever method you use, make sure you top stitch the tie for a nice clean look.

To finish off the neck, you can use a rolled hem, use interfacing, or trace the neck hole onto paper and create a lining.

I decided to do a combination of the three. I made a lining for the slice in the neckline, by cutting a piece of fabric that was 1″ + length of the slice in length and 2″ wide. I laid this on top of the neckline, matching the top selvage edge, then pinned and sewed with a ‘¼” seam allowance.

Cut the fabric down the slice, clip the curve at the bottom, and turn and press your fabric.

Before top stitching, it’s time to do the rolled hem on the neckline!

Open the slice’s lining back up and press the seam open at the top edges. Fold the neckline down ‘¼”. At this point, you can either stitch it, or fold it another ‘¼” and iron it, then top stitch around the neckline.

Fold in the slice’s lining and top stitch.

Your beautiful vintage shirt is complete! Add a flower pin, hammer in some grommets and add some ribbon, paint a design across the front – the possibilities are endless and will certainly be a unique addition to your closet.

If you liked this tutorial, be sure to let us know in the comments below and show off your amazing “œvintage” wrap shirts!