By Donna Adellamorio

For my daughter’s 16th birthday, we threw a DIY fashion design party for her and her friends, with help from the book Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-Shirt by Megan Nicolay. The book shows how to turn any T-shirt into a tank top, halter top, T-skirt, iPod cozy, gloves… the possibilities are pretty impressive. More than one-third of the projects are no-sew too, so anyone can do it and have fun.

We planned ahead and borrowed two sewing machines besides our own. That was essential to keeping harmony. I also gave a quick tutorial on how to use the machines beforehand. Very helpful. We supplied each girl with a container of the following:

a pair of small shears
thread
needles
safety pins
pins

We rounded up T-shirts from friends, family, and the local thrift store. The party started at 3:00. I let the girls know that part of the process was making mistakes, and to have fun. I was surprised at how eager they were to start. They only stopped long enough to take a dinner break and worked until about 11:00 that night. When everyone was done, they all modeled their creations and took pictures. The next day everyone went home with one-of-a-kind party favors they had made themselves.

Everyone had a great time and my daughter was happy to recreate part of her wardrobe. She said, "I had some old shirts that I never wore, but I really didn't want to part with them. It was fun to turn them into something new."

For free tips and project tutorials, or to find out more about the book, check out generation-t.com.

This Party Tip came to us from a reader in Auburn. (Thanks, Donna!) If you have a party tip of your own you’d like to share, please email it to us at info@sacramentoparent.com. Party on!