Convert an adult-sized t-shirt into a toddler playsuit.

My partner and I have been very lucky to have never had to buy clothes for our son. Between gifts and hand-me-downs from friends and family, our son is usually a pretty well dressed little guy through no effort on my part. Very occasionally, however, we run into an issue where we have too much of one thing and not enough of another.

Recently we found ourselves with too few t-shirts in a 18-months size.

One thing we did have a lot of was adult t-shirts, so I decided to quickly make one fit our baby.

I'll be the first to admit that it's not my greatest work. With a "helpful" toddler underfoot and me being too lazy to break out the serger, the finished product wound up far from perfect. But it successfully covers his naked body and looks pretty good under a sweater.

Step 1: Materials & Tools

For this project I used:

adult medium t-shirt
toddler outfit to trace
chalk for tracing
sewing scissors
pins
sewing machine
needle and thread
snaps

Step 2: Tracing and Cutting

I placed a playsuit that fits my son on top of the adult t-shirt, and traced around it with chalk. I decided to forgo sleeves to keep things as quick and easy as possible.

I folded the adult t-shirt in half and cut along the chalk line, leaving a small seam allowance.

The opening at the neck of the adult shirt was too large, so I cut it and then overlapped the pieces.

Step 3: Sewing

I turned the pieces inside out, and pinned them together. I quickly sewed together the seams at the shoulders and along the sides (leaving the arm holes open).

I did a zigzag stitch around the arm holes and bottom edges (this is where I should have set up the serger, but didn't).

Finally, I hand sewed snaps onto the bottom edge, so the shirt can be worn as a playsuit around the house.