Autopsy Shirt (how to)

[ickaimp]

Recently, one of my favourite sleeveless shirts got a hole in it due to a fence while petting a pair of lovely greyhounds. I patched it up, but it was still kind of obvious. So rather than throw the shirt away, I decided to do something with it instead.

Autopsy Shirt. >D

I did a little bit of digging around first, learning where to place the cuts, what kind of stitch is used (baseball stitch) and learning how to do said stitch.

I put the shirt on inside out and marked the shoulders, the curve of the sternum and approximate middle with a red sharpie marker.

I then laid the shirt out flat and drew the 'Y'. You can see where the shirt is stretched out and where the arms of the 'Y' are a little long. It'll become obvious why that is for me at the end. Adjust to your own measurements.
-the red sharpie marker was chosen for my own morbid amusement, next time I'm using pencil or something that won't dye my fingers as much.


Next was cutting the 'Y'. I used my sharper scissors (The black viking shears) to snip holes at the top of the 'Y' and used my regular scissors to cut the rest. (IE: used what's at hand)


A tip mentioned on a taxidermy site was to mark every two inches or so to make sure that you keep everything lined up, which I did. I pulled out a bunch of crochet thread that we had laying around to choose the colour for the stitches, since I wanted them to be visible. I chose white over the maroon or navy blue that was laying around because it offered the best contrast.
-Also debated using some of my waxed linen thread meant for sewing leather, then decided against it because the linen would be likely to tear the material when stretched.

It took me three tries to get the first row of stitches to work, here is attempt number one. You can see how the marks aren't lining up and there's an accidental whip stich in there as well. The tricky for me with the stitch was keeping it loose enough to lie flat. Before tying any seams off, I went through and slackened all of the stitches.
Most of what I'd read for doing the baseball stitch said to use a curved needle, which makes sense when working on a flat firm surface, but for fabric, a regular needle worked best.


Completed row of stitches done. I safety-pinned the other arm of the 'Y' closed so that the fabric wouldn't move around too much while sewing.


The completed stitches. To continue the 'Frankenstein' theme, I continued the stitches a little farther up on the last seam with a regular whip stitch.


Behold! The finished product! And now you can see why I'm always griping wanting to find bras that fit. >P
Close up of the middle of the 'Y' and the original mended tear. In the future, will focus on making the stitches a little farther apart.

Optional Assistance from weasels and cats may also occur, but is not recommended.

Equipment: Shirt, marker, thread, needles, scissors.
Amount of Time Taken: 5 hours, including 3 episodes of Nijuu-Mensou no Musume and 4 episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's.

Comments

[marsdejahthoris.livejournal.com]

You look astonishingly like one of my previous roommates, Icka... Though she's only a DD, but the hair color, style, and general build are right...

Shirt's cool, too.

[ickaimp.livejournal.com]

Cleavage aside, I am regrettably generic looking. Although if I had put more thought into the pic, I would have actually done my hair, that was taken as I was getting dressed for work and hadn't done much more than brush it. m'a little vain about my hair, is finally waist-length. XD

Ysabet wants an autopsy shirt too, so will be doing one of those in the foreseeable future. Is kinda fun! ^____^

[marsdejahthoris.livejournal.com]

Gah, waist-length hair. *shudders* Mine is currently about three-quarters of an inch in length in the back, and an inch and a half long on top. I have no good pictures of myself from the past five years, or I'd show you one.