refashioned men's shirt

This is something I've had on my mind for a while now since I've got a growing collection of cast off, button-up shirts crowding my craft closet. This project totally appeals to my craft pack rat sensibilities. ("I could do something with this" is a phrase often heard in our household.)

Before I tell you how I did it, I have to give props to My Mama Made It for all of her cute shirt reconstructions and this blouse by Angry Chicken. Both served as the kick in the pants I needed to finally take on this little project. So, here's goes. Forgive the lack of technical terms.

The starting point, one of Rich's dress shirts (thanks, hon!):

First, I flipped it over, back facing up, and cut off the sleeves and collar.

Next, I tried the shirt on and decided where best it would fit across the chest and under my arms. On me, that required raising it up about 3 inches. I had to cut new shoulders and neck openings, fortunately under the back yoke, which I removed completely. I made the neckline lower in the front than the back by about 2 inches. (For the back neck line, I ended up cutting about 1.5 inches above a button. I'll show you in a sec how I finished that off.) I also drafted new side seams to fit my form a little better (but not too much - it's still a fairly loose fit). Here it is, right sides facing and basted:

I tried it on again to check the fit before sewing the seams. To finish the arm and neck holes, I applied a water soluble hem tape to the wrong side edges and turned them under twice, topstitching 1/4 inch from the edge.

In the back I added a new button hole and a covered button in one of my favorite fabrics. I don't love how this part turned out, but it's rarely seen, so I'm not stressing. Ignore the sloppy stitching.

On to the embellishment! From the leftover sleeve material, I cut three strips, approximately 3 inches deep by 20, 18, and 16 inches wide, respectively, then serged the edges...

and used my ruffler to pleat the pieces.

Finally, I eyeballed their placement on the front of the blouse (formerly the back of the shirt), pinned and stitched them down along the ruffle seam line.

Ta DA!

      

So when I mentioned to my friend Neva that I'd made this blouse out of one of Rich's old shirts, she immediately responded, "Rich had a Puffy Shirt?!" Um. No. I was both flattered and chagrined. It's nice that she just couldn't imagine a pretty, feminine blouse having once been a regular, old men's dress shirt. On the other hand, she apparently thought that my husband might have, at one time, worn something like this.

Patched Jeans Tutorial

Earlier in my pregnancy, when I was outgrowing everything in my closet, there was one pair of jeans that still fit. Unfortunately, they seemed to rip in a new spot every time I bent my knees. So, out of desperation and an appalling lack of decent, local, maternity jeans options, I patched them. Not sure where that put me style-wise, but they got me by in a pinch. I did have fun figuring out the patching process and will definitely use it on kids' clothes in the future.

I'll tell you how I did it. This was the problem:

First, I trimmed away the flap:

Then I started the patch. I wanted it to be strong enough to hold up to stress and washing with the denim, so I fused two large fabric scraps together using Heat'n'Bond fusible interfacing. I'll get to the hem tape in a sec.

This is an older Amy Butler print from my stash for the front side and just any old scrap for the back (the black gingham). I fused the two scraps together (following package instructions), then trimmed the fused piece into an appropriately sized patch. Make sure when you try this that you leave at least a 1/2 inch overlap around the edges of your hole to give yourself plenty of stitching room.

Okay, patch done. Now, with the jeans inside out, I lined the edges of the hole with fusible hem tape. Following the package directions to fuse the patch over the hole, make sure that you cover it entirely with plenty of room for stitching. Not that I pictured it this way above, but you'll need to lay the patch so that your main fabric is showing through the hole when your jeans are turned right side out. You knew that.

And, here you go, right side out. I still pinned around the hole before stitching, just because I didn't really trust the strength of the bond made by the hem tape to hold up to hand sewing through heavy denim.


Use any stitch you like to finish the edges, starting (and finishing) your stitching inside. Not sure what you'd call this stitch I used. I just knew I wanted it to be a little rough and organic looking. And fast. If you choose to use a straight stitch, or something that doesn't actually grab the edges of the denim, you may need a little extra space between your stitching and the edge to allow for fraying.

If you're not into colorful patches, use denim scraps for a simpler, distressed look. This is a good way to make your favorite pair of jeans last a little longer when they start to wear out. Crafty, economic and earth-friendly to boot. The grandmothers would be proud.