My baby’s favorite tee t-shirt was getting a little threadbare. Instead of tossing it out or letting it sit in the laundry basket for who knows how long, I decided to give her an upgrade with a cropped tee. Cropped tees are very popular right now, and they’re easy to make! In this post, I’m going to show you how to transform your baby’s old shirt into a trendy new cropped top with nothing but scissors and some thread.
Cropped T-shirts for Babies
Crop tops are a great way to get a little more mileage out of your baby’s tees. They’re easy to make, too!
- Get any type of T-shirt that you can fit over your baby’s head. You can even get creative here: if it’s not a t-shirt, just cut off the top!
- Cut out two rectangles from fabric that is longer than your T-shirt and about 6 inches wide.
- Sew each rectangle inside along the edges (see photo). Be sure not to sew through both layers at once or else they will stick together!
Now you have yourself some super cute cropped tops for babies!
Materials and Tools
Materials and Tools
- Crochet hook (size depends on the yarn you use)
- Yarn (again, it depends on what size crochet hook you use)
- Scissors (not pictured below because they are too easy to find)
- Sewing machine
Step 1
- Cut along the seam at the top of the shirt.
- Cut out a neckline in the front of your shirt, following its original shape as closely as possible. This will be your baby’s new crop top!
- Cut out armholes along both sides (you’ll want them to be about 3″/7.6 cm wide).
Step 2
- Cut the sleeve off your shirt and cut the bottom of the t-shirt in a straight line. You can leave some extra fabric here so that when you put your baby on top of it, you don’t see any white fabric peeking through.
- Now take that piece of fabric and fold it in half with right sides together (the good side facing out).
- Pin along all edges except for where we’re going to cut our armholes out (see picture). The seam allowance is 3/8″. I recommend using pins instead of chalk because if you use chalk, sometimes it will rub off onto your finished project and then not look as clean when you’re done sewing!
- Sew along these pinned lines starting from one end until about halfway down before reaching another pin mark or seam allowance change point then go back up again (you’ll want to stop at a seam allowance change point so that everything lines up perfectly). If there are no seam allowances changes along this length then just sew all the way down until there isn’t any more room left over before stopping!
Step 3
- Cut the hole in the top with a sharp pair of scissors. Make sure to cut it in the right place, direction, and size.
- Do not make the hole too small or you will have trouble getting baby’s head through it!
Step 4
- Sew the side seams. Press the seam allowances open, then press them in again to create a single-fold hem on each piece.
- Finish the edges of your fabric, if desired (see step 3).
- Hem your sleeves and sew them onto both body pieces at their openings, right sides facing in and raw edges aligned. When you’re done with this step, you should have a brand-new garment that looks like this:
Cropped t-shirts are a great way to get a little more mileage out of your baby’s tees.
- Cropped t-shirts are a great way to get a little more mileage out of your baby’s tees.
- They’re also a great way to express your style, since you can sew them up in whatever fabric and pattern you want.
- And if you’re not into sewing, there are plenty of other options—like simply cutting off the bottom!
Conclusion
I hope that you’ve found this tutorial helpful and will be able to make your own baby cropped tees!