What do you get when you take a ready made t-shirt, some hemming tape, a lovely Japanese print fabric and two buttons?  The tab tunic tshirt revamp! 
There are a lot of fabulous ideas out there for t-shirt decoration at the moment, but I was looking to make something a little different. 

This isn't a tutorial in terms of accurate measurements and patterns - it's more of a 'how to' so you can revamp a tshirt in any size that takes your fancy.  Just click on 'read more' to find out all about it!

To start with you'll need a basic round necked  tshirt, some quilting weight fabric, two buttons and some hemming tape.  It shouldn't take long for you to gather your supplies!

Start by making a pattern for the 'tunic' front on your t-shirt.  Fold the tshirt in half lengthwise.  Decide on the shape that you want the tunic front to be.   Using a piece of tracing paper (I use baking paper!) trace around the neckline of the t-shirt to ensure an accurate neck shape.  The top of your tunic front should start at the shoulder seams. Other than that - the design is up to you!

Next, you'll have to add a seam (or folding!) allowance to the outside edges of your pattern piece. I added 1.5cm to all edges except the neckline.

Cut out your pattern and pin it on your folded fabric. When you've cut it out, you should have a piece that looks like this!

Your next job is to mark where the centre opening is going to be.  Mark it on the wrong side of the tunic piece.  On the centre fold of the tunic piece draw a line the length  you want your front opening to be.  This will become your cutting line.  Measure out 0.5cm from each side of this line and join them across at the bottom.  Now you've drawn your sewing line!

Iron in 1.5 cm towards the wrong side of the fabric on all of the straight sides of your tunic piece.  Don't iron in the neckline! It should like this...

Now it's time to start sewing.  Pinning around the neckline, match  the RIGHT side of the tunic piece to the WRONG side of the front of the tshirt.  Match your tunic piece shoulders to the shoulders of the tshirt.

At this stage, you're only going to sew around the neckline. Starting on one of the shoulder seams and using a zig zag stitch attach the neckline of the tunic piece to the neckline of the t-shirt.  When you reach the first sewing line you drew on  the centre front of the tunic piece, pivot and sew to the bottom line , pivot and sew across the bottom, pivot again and head back up the second sewing line  you drew.  When you get back up to the neckline, pivot one last time and sew up to the shoulder seam.  Phew... that was less complicated than it sounded, wasn't it!

Now you need to get some scissors.  In order to create the centre opening,  cut down the cutting line you drew.  Don't cut through any of the stitching lines. Make two tiny diagonal cuts at the bottom out towards your seams to ensure that the facing lays flat when you turn it through . Trim back the neckline (only where you've sewn!), so it's not too bulky.  Pull the tunic facing through to the right side of the t-shirt so it look like this...

OK, so the pins won't be in, but you get the idea. You may need to gently stretch out the fabric at the bottom of the centre opening to make sure that it lays flat.  Roll the seams between your thumb and forefingers.

I somehow forgot to take a photo of the next step.  It's not essential, but it makes life a lot easier!  Using strips of hemming tape, adhere the wrong side of tunic piece to the front of the t-shirt.  Make sure that all of the raw edges are tucked under neatly! You'll probably want to use pins as well, but the hemming tape makes everything super secure.

Using a zig- zag stitch attach the tunic facing to the tshirt.  Starting at one side of the  neckline sew around the whole outer edge of the tunic facing. It's a bit fiddly, but definitely well worth the effort!

OK, so that's the tricky bit done. Now all you have to do is make and attach the button tabs to the sleeves. This is what they look like, remember?

Next you'll need to do a little  measuring to decide on the size that you need to cut the tab pieces 

Iron the sleeves so that you create a crisp centre fold along the top of them.

Decide where you want the buttons to be on the sleeves and make a small mark   Roll up the sleeves to this point.  Measure the distance between this mark and  the bottom of the folded sleeve.

When you have this measurement you need to double it and add 3cm to determine the length of your tab piece.
My measurement was 7cm so my tab piece was 17cm. (7 x 2 +3 = 17)

You also need to decide on the width of the tab pieces.  Once you have decided on the  finished width multiply it by 4.  So, if you want your tab to be 1.5cm wide, your fabric strip needs to be 6cm wide.  (1.5 x 4 =6)   That's the maths out of the way!

Cut two strips the same size and head over to the ironing board.

Iron the strip in half lengthwise to create a crisp centre fold.

Iron in the short edges of the pieces about 1.5cm.
Next, iron the two outer edges to the centre fold that you just created.

Iron the strip in half so that all of the raw edges are folded to the middle.

Top stitch down both of the long sides and repeat the process to make the other tab.

Next, measure the size of your buttons and make appropriate size button holes on  one end of each tab.

Nearly done - just a few more steps!

You need to attach the tabs to the inside of the sleeves.  Make sure the button holes are facing down towards the wrist of the t-shirt.  Attach the tabs using a zig zag stitch just below the point  you marked for the placement of the button.  You made this mark on the outside of the sleeve, so you'll need to transfer it to the inside.  Make sure your thread matches the colour of the t-shirt as you'll see the stitching on the outside! I reinforced this seam by reversing over it a number of times.

Sew the buttons on the outside of the tshirt - if you attach them over the stitches where you attached the tabs to the inside of the tshirt, they'll be in the right place. 

Hurray - you're done!