A Pretty Shirt Refashion

 Man, I have been super sporadic with my tutorials lately.

 I finished my spring semester in May and my kids will be done with school tomorrow! (Yay! No more alarm clocks to set or lunches to pack until August! WOOHOO!) 

I'm hoping to do a lot more tutorials this summer. Fingers crossed! =)

But for now, here's how I made this shirt....

  

Ugh. For realsies, I should never wear shirts that have no shape ever again. And note to self, get a hairstyle. yikes! lol 

Anywho, onto the clothing...

I was gifted 2 big bags of clothes from a friend of a friend. They were too big, but only by one size. Even though most of the shirts were in great condition, they were shorter than I prefer. Also, most of the shirts looked like the red shirt on the left. Whomever (did I use that right?) owned these shirts before me either really loved the style or they got a seriously great deal. I have a ton of these shirts now.  

 I love the red, but it needed updated and shaped. So I searched through the bag and found that middle shirt. I love the pattern, but a shirt in my size should never ever ever ever (did I mention never ever?) have that as an all over pattern. Geesh. I knew the pattern would look perfect as an accent. 

So here's the tutorial: 

This is an up close shot of the shirts. See that crocheted part on the neckline of the red shirt?

 I started with that.

I couldn't grab my seam ripper fast enough. I got rid of the crocheted panels on the shirt. 

Btw, this is one of my favorite parts of a refashion...the demolition. =) 

I had to use my scissors on some of the crochet part, some of it was super stubborn.

The picture below is what the shirt looked like at this point.  

Next to go were the sleeves. (I need some tank tops for the summer.)

Instead of using the seam ripper here, I just went straight for the scissors. I cut off the sleeves right before the shoulder seam.

With the shirt turned inside out, I folded the raw edges over twice and pinned them down. 

Then I sewed the seam of the arm holes.

For this next part (with the shirt turned inside out), I tried on the shirt and pinned under the armpit then I pinned the shirt down the sides. I didn't want it to be tight, so I flared my pins out towards the bottom. 

 After I was sure I had it pinned just the way I wanted, I sewed along the pins. Once I finished sewing the shirt, I trimmed the excess fabric from the sides.

 Back to the neckline. I wanted to add the patterned material as a trim and then add a modesty panel to the neckline.

I cut a long strip of fabric from the patterned shirt. Mine was 2 inches in width. 

 This next step, I used this tutorial I found at Craftsy.com. It's an awesome tutorial on how to make a V-neck. I modified it slightly to only use the front part of the neckline and not all the way around.

The picture below is what the v-neck looks like from the inside of the shirt.

 The picture below is what the v-neck looks like on the outside of the shirt.

 To make the modesty panel, I cut a piece of fabric from the patterned shirt. I took the easy road and found a piece of the neckline from that shirt that already had a finished edge.

The next step was to pin the modesty panel to the v-neck.

(this is the view from the outside of the shirt)

 I sewed it and trimmed all of that excess fabric off. 

To make the trim at the bottom of the shirt, I cut off the original bottom of the patterned shirt. (Again, I saved myself a step by not having to hem the trim.) I don't remember the exact width of the patterned strip, but it was really just a preference on how long I wanted the shirt to be. If I had to guess, I would say it was probably 4 inches. 

I pinned the strip up under the shirt and sewed it to the shirt. Once, I was finished, I trimmed the excess patterned fabric.

And this was the final result! I love this shirt. I think it's flattering on me now. Or at least it's way more flattering than it was in the beginning. =)  

***Stop by my zibbet.com shop!***

www.zibbet.com/therufflybuffalo 

Thanks!