Ribbon Shoulder Tee

I was recently accused of not being a real seamstress.  (Rude, right?  But also oh, so true.)  Let's be honest here, people.  I received my first sewing machine on November 29, 2010.  It was a present from my mom for my birthday.  She was feeling kind of sorry for me at the time and would have bought me a pony if I had asked for it.  (Too bad I didn't think of it at the time.)  So no.  I am not a real seamstress.  I cheat.  I copy the pros from JCrew and ShopRuche and other such places and steal their ideas.  As a teacher, I probably should be ashamed, but I'm not.  (Apparently I've been lying to my students when I tell them cheating will never really get them anywhere.  It will, in fact, get them 49 (49!!!)  whole followers on their blog.)  

This shirt, however, I came up with all on my own.  Just to prove that I could.  Start with a plain shirt and a thick satiny ribbon (I believe mine was 3 inches thick.)  Sew the ribbon to the shoulder seam of the shirt, like so:

Fold the ribbon down and make a couple of pleats.  Accuracy is not important.  Make them as big or small as you like them. Stitch these pleats into place.

You should have lots of extra ribbon hanging off the end of your pleats.  Chop this off.  You will use this to make your bow:

Cut two strips of ribbon about 4 inches long to make the ends of your bows.  Stitch them to the shirt, directly over where you first cut our ribbon:

(It's going to look kind of messy at this point, but don't worry!  It's about to be covered up by a bow.

To make your bow, take a long strip of ribbon and fold the ends in on each other:

Then take a short strip of ribbon and wrap it around where the two ends meet. (Sorry, forgot to get a picture of this part.  My bad.)  I used Liquid Stitch to hold it in place.

  Once the liquid stitch has dried, sew the bow onto the shirt, making sure to cover all of the jagged cut areas.  

(Notice how you have two angles of the shirt in the same picture?  Sometimes I astound myself with my photography skills.  Also notice that I am wearing a running skirt.  Don't worry, I hadn't gone for a run yet, so I am still nice and clean (and happy) in this picture.)

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