Travel Wordrobe #8

  Hello Readers. I am going on a trip to England and I decided to coordinate my travel wardrobe. I am packing all new refashion projects and I will be posting about my journey and my outfit of the day along the way. This post is about a men's shirt. It was a nice linen and I thought the plaid was very sweet. 

Before and after.

 

I decided to cut the collar off and make a V shape.

 

 I used my serger on the edge and turned it under. I stitched it down to make a nice, neat neckline.

 

I also stitched the front closed at the bottom. I want it to stay closed if I wear it as a dress.

I can wear this as a short dress if it is warm or as a long shirt with jeans if it is cold. 

Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

***Follow up review***

My trip was so much fun.- This shirt/tunic/dress was nice in the heat because it is linen. I also planned to use it as a beach cover-up.

***Year End Update- I wear this as a night shirt and a shirt ad a dress over leggings. It is all of those.

Travel Refashions #4

  Hello Readers. I am going on a trip to England and I decided to coordinate my travel wardrobe. I am packing all new refashion projects and I will be posting about my journey and my outfit of the day along the way. This post is about a men's shirt and sweater vest that are going to live a new life.

Before and after.

This was a basic men's button down shirt and a soft sweater vest. The yellow shirt had light blue pinstripes that looked great with the blue sweater. I wanted the shirt to be a shirt dress but it was too short for that. Or was it????

I cut the shirt in half and used the body of the shirt to make a skirt with an elastic waistband. The elastic is hidden in a casing so all that shows is the shirt fabric. I hemmed the top of the shirt with the smallest hem possible. 

 

I cut the top of the shirt down a little. The sleeves were very large on me. I wanted it to fit a little better. 

 

I also made the sweater vest a big smaller too. It was a men's large and I wanted it to be a woman's medium. 

 

I cropped the length a little too. I folded the bottom up with the right sides together and used a zigzag stitch.

 

I cut off the excess and that was it. I now had a smaller, shorter vest.

 

I can wear this combo as an outfit or I can wear the top and sweater with jeans on a colder day. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun with yourself. 

***Follow up review***

My trip was so much fun.- I wore the top of this outfit with jeans in the morning because it was cold.

I wore the skirt in the afternoon when it got hot.

***Year End Update- I loved this shirt and vest combo. It was cute and I gave the top to my daughter so she could wear it too.

 

 

 

Button Down to Summer Dress

 Hello Readers. Let's do a "blue" refashion project. We are all in the thick of summer. If you are in the U.S. you have felt the heat wave that has crossed the nation by now. Ugh, it's too hot!! I have a "cool" refashion idea. 

 

Before and after.

This shirt seemed to be a men's extra large. I loved the tiny floral print. It reminded me of the "Little House on the Prairie" dresses at Target. I almost made one just for fun but I am not interested in wearing that style so I decided to make a dress I would like.

I tried the shirt on and marked how large I wanted the bodice of my dress to be. These 2 pencils are marking the places where I wanted to make new side seams. I marked it with chalk but it is hard to see in the photo. I also decided where to cut the bottom of the shirt off. I wanted a high waist on this dress so the bodice is not very long. Mine is approximately 14 inches.

Here is my new bodice with the sleeves cut off. The sleeves and arm holes were so large on me that I decided they needed to be removed and saved for a later day. 

Here is a better look at the main parts of my new dress. The skirt of the dress is the bottom of the shirt. I wanted the skirt of this dress to be as full as possible so I didn't alter the size of the skirt piece. Now I need to put these 2 pieces together.

I used my clips to make sure the skirt is spread out around the bodice. You could also sew them together loosely by hand and arrange the fabric evenly that way. I wanted to make some pleats so the clips worked for me. The next step is sewing these 2 pieces together with my sewing machine to make it strong and sturdy.

The final step was to finish the armholes. I wanted to make them nice and neat. There are so many ways to do this. This time I decided to add some eyelet lace trim to the armholes. Laura Ingalls Wilder would have approved of this lace I am sure. The lace coves the cut edge of the armhole and makes it look nicely finished.

I have worn this dress a lot since I made it. I didn't know I needed it until I had it ready to wear. 

It even went on vacation and played mini golf. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

*Year End Note From Chickie- This dress got a lot of wear this summer. It was perfect for summer.