Chasing Davies: DIY: Petal Corsage T-Shirt

September 2, 2009

DIY: Petal Corsage T-Shirt

Remember J.Crew's corsage T-shirt? It was last available on sale for $19.99. Well, my mom got one and I thought it was so cute. I took a closer look at how it was made - and found it to be quite easy to mimic, and a lot cheaper...


Here's what I did.

I bought two of the same shirts from Forever 21. I like their Ts and they are just under $5 each - which is a steal for a shirt that fits well. So, find your favorite cheap t (whether it be from Target, Wal-Mart or somewhere else) and get two of the same, in the same colors.


When eying the real corsage T, I saw that the sewn on petals were heart shapes of fabric folded over one another. So I made a heart template out of a a thicker magazine page, and used the extra T-shirt to cute out 15 hearts.

This was the hardest part - I sometimes had to pin or bobby pin down the heart to the fabric before cutting around it to get it to stay in one spot. But in the end, the heart doesn't have to be perfect, so don't worry too much.

After you have your hearts cut out (Max P. Yearbook - don't you love all this heart talk???), you can start to sew! You can do this by hand (which I did, because my sewing machine is in storage - only a few more weeks....!) or by machine.

Start at the top of one side of the shirt - near where the collar bone would hit and next to the neck line.

Place your heart at a diagonal, so that the top part folds over, creating a double petal. Sew in the middle of the hearts, slightly off center, so the heart doesn't fold over completely evenly - you want to see both humps.

Work your way down....till it looks like this:

Cascading Petals


I'll wear it soon and show you an IRL photo - I'm thinking with navy bottoms and yellow accessories? I love this bright purple color paired with another bold color.

What do you think? Will you give this a try?