How You Can Easily and Quickly Customize a Regular T-shirt

In this short post, I will share with you a simple way to customize a t-shirt, purchased from any retailer, to make it look unique and reflect your personality. Let's start. I like bright colors. And I like them in the clothes as well. That's why this bright t-shirt with colorful print attracted my attention and I bought it. However, after looking at it for some days, I decided that it was missing a twist. Even though colorful, it was missing some accents or spikes.

I like bright colors. I like them in the accessories, shoes, and clothes. That's why this bright t-shirt with colorful print attracted my attention and I bought it. However, after looking at it for some days, I decided that it was missing a twist. Even though colorful, it was missing some accents or spikes. Of course, I equipped myself with beads, sequins, and bugle beads and started customizing it.

First, let me tell you that I decided only to decorate these stylish ladies' earrings and accessories. The reason for that is that beads are quite heavy. I know that because I also craft bracelets fully covered with beads, embroidery, and sequins. Since the t-shirt is made of cotton and is very light, I thought that adding only small beaded accents would be enough. Also, I decided not to embroid anything on the back of the T-shirt. That decision was based on the ergonomics of wearing clothes. When you sit on a chair or bench, beads on your back can be uncomfortable. Therefore, all my beading was only done on the front of the T-shirt as well as on its sleeves. Because I was only embellishing accessories, hence came the selection of the beads: I needed colors to match the existing print. I picked up similar hues in a variety of materials: Toho beads sizes 8\0, 10\0, 11\0, and 15\0, matching bugle beads, and matching sequins. The only color that was different from the original print was gold, with a tiny twinkle effect.

Putting the t-shirt into the beading hoops was not an easy exercise since the t-shirt is quite elastic, and it was hard to keep the fabric well-stretched. But for the convenience of embroidery, I still put it part by part into the beading hoop. All I needed to do now was embroider earrings and hair accessories mimicking the original pattern, as well as real earrings.

Where the pattern allowed me, I tried to put different materials nearby. For example, earrings of the lady at the front are made with sequins and beads, whereas earrings of the lady on the back are made from the combination of three various sizes of Toho beads.

In case you did not notice, the design of this t-shirt is made using the classical contrast colors combination of the color wheel. Blue with yellow, red with green. That makes this bright design look harmonious. I liked this lady with a hairband and green earrings. I used red bugle beads to shape the hairband, matching red sequins to make a bow, and then 10\0 size Toho beads in this sea-green hue. Because the decor of this lady is so rich, the earrings of the neighboring lady are minimalistic: just one bugle bead with one Toho bead at the edge.

For every next lady, I tried to create a new design of the earrings to ensure that the full ornament of the finished product is varied enough. As you can see here, the lady on the left got simple earrings crafted from two shiny blue sequins and 4 dark blue beads, whereas the lady on the right got earrings crafted from a yellow bugle bead, one golden sequin, and a small yellow bead.

After embellishing 2-3 pairs of earrings, I was checking the whole front of the t-shirt to see how the design was showing. There were a couple of places on the t-shirt that I wanted to stand out even more. That's why, for one lady, I decided to add more decoration, embroidering also the top of her blouse.

And for this other lady, I added bugle beads to highlight the belt of her trousers.

This project is simple, but creative. You can choose which elements to enrich with beading or embroidery. Using the same t-shirt as an example, instead of embroidering the earrings and accessories, you can embroider leaves of the trees and plants, surrounding the ladies. Just add a bit of handmade decoration, and any mass-market clothes will become personalized with the twinkle of beads, sequins, or just embroidery.

I like what I've got as a final result: the t-shirt definitely looks brighter and is now unique. No one will have the same t-shirt even though it comes from a popular retail chain. In the photo below, you can see a bigger fragment of the front of the t-shirt.

And here is the final result:

I hope you like this small craft project. Thank you for reading our blog. I also want to remind you that on this blog, we mainly post small projects, which cannot be converted into a full-scale tutorial. If you want to learn about beading from Miyuki Delica beads using the peyote stitch technique and explore our jewelry-making tutorials, please visit our YouTube channel and check out our tutorials. And, of course, you are more than welcome to check up our online shop: maybe you will find there a wonderful piece of art for yourself or your loved ones.

Happy crafting!