I have FINALLY made something successful for my baby sister. She's a crucial part of this blog, although you don't see much of her. She takes all the pictures of me and most importantly, she's my brutally honest wardrobe critic, so I feel honored I was able to make something she approved of.
Well, I didn't actually make-make this, I re-made it. My mom has saved a bunch of dad's old shirts, some of which have never been worn because they were the wrong size. This was one of them.
The fabric is lo-ve-ly and this one was a true gem construction wise too. I'm bummed that I didn't take a before picture, but just picture my sister drowning in blue shirting. I started by cutting off the sleeves and I swear I heard a choir singing hallelujah. The arm scythes are ingeniously constructed so that there weren't any raw edges left! Sooo beautiful! Having said that, I don't envy the seamstress who has set in those sleeves.
I go about these kinds of re-makes one way - stick the poor customer in front of the mirror and start pinning away. It takes some time, because you have to pin the same changes to both sides of the garment, otherwise you might accidentally remove too much. You'll start at the top and work your way down.
This time the side seams needed the most adjusting, so I began with those. Then it was my sister who came up with the brilliant idea to make a vertical seam that goes all the way from almost the back hem and over the shoulder. The shirt had existing darts that I deepened.
The most time consuming part of this project was moving all the pins from the right side to the wrong side of the shirt and measuring everything. I top-stitched the new seams so that they would match the original darts left.
I love the fit of this new tunic/dress/shirt! It flares out just a bit at the bottom which gives it a feminine air. Luckily for my sister the fit isn't spot-on for me - otherwise the shirt would have mysteriously gotten "lost" or "damaged" during the process and ended up in my closet!
Have you got any great tips for re-making men's shirts? I have a couple more left that I would love to get to good use!
ha ha, it's great to have a sister! :) you may have noticed that my sister is usually the one behind the camera for my projects :D she's also the only other person I've made wearable garments for :) it took me some time to convince her to be in front of the camera, and now everything is good!
ReplyDeleteyou did a good adjustment with the shirt :) hope your sister likes it too :)