Travel Refashions #6

  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 that I made into a fun peplum top. 

Before and after.

I look like a suburban dad at a BBQ.

 

 

I cut the length of the shirt. It was a little too long for me. 

 

I hemmed the shirt and added some narrow elastic around the waist.  This will pull the waist in and make that peplum shape. The bottom of the shirt will make a nice ruffle.
 

I used a seam ripper to open the sleeves. 

I put elastic in the sleeve cuff so it would make a puffed sleeve.

 

I tied a knot and tucked it back in the sleeve. I sewed the opening closed so it would stay together.

 

I cut the collar off and made a round neck. 

 

I used bias tape to make a casing and put elastic around the neck. I liked the new shape the top had. It will be great with jeans by itself or with a sweater if needed. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.
 

***Follow up review***

My trip was so much fun.- This was casual but not boring or frumpy. Perfect vacation wear.

***Year End Update- I loved this shirt and wore it to work one day in the summer. A woman (Customer) stopped to tell me in detail how much she liked it. That sounds nice but then she started telling me how she lived in Germany and how Hitler was so charismatic and that I should listen to how he spoke and I would hear it in his voice. It was super weird and creepy so I got the heck out of there as fast as I could. People are weird, I can't explain it. I haven't worn it since.

 

 

Make an Easy Peplum Top

 Hello Readers. Do you celebrate St. Patrick's Day? I do a little something every year. I love a holiday theme and I am Irish so I was in the zone.

 

Before and after.

 

This green t-shirt was not very exciting on it's own. But it was a great place to start a St. Patrick's Day project. The scarf is actually covered in green hearts, not shamrocks but It's going to be perfect for my new shirt.

This shirt was a freebie from a swap and I used green paint to cover the logo of the business. It didn't have to cover 100% it just had to tone down the white of the business name. (This isn't a business I am trying to give free advertising to. Let's just paint over the name.)

When the paint was dry, I put the shirt on my dress form to work on the fit a little. I cut the neckband off the shirt. This opens up the neck and chest a little and makes it more comfortable. 

I wanted some cute puffy sleeves so I cut the hemmed edge from the ends of the sleeves.

I cut a slit in the top of the sleeve to separate the sleeve into 2. I cut along the outside of the sleeve up to the shoulder seam.

I stretched the cut edges to make them longer. T-shirt material had a lot of give and stretch in it so this was not hard to do. 

I took the 2 ends and tied them into a knot. This made the sleeves more interesting and gave them a little more fullness. 

 

Let's talk about this scarf. It is very thin and a little sheer. That is OK for what I am going to do with it.
 

I cut out a small piece from one edge of the scarf. I wanted to make a pocket. Remember that logo I was painting earlier? This will cover the company name perfectly. 

This scarf is made of very thin lightweight material. I decided to add some fusible interfacing to strengthen the pocket and make it easier to sew. 

I ironed the bumpy side of the interfacing to the inside of my pocket fabric. The interfacing was cut smaller than the pocket so I could fold the edges in. This will give me a nice finished edge all around the pocket when I sew it to the shirt.

You can't see the logo anymore at all. I pinned the pocket in place on my green shirt.

I sewed the pocket to the shirt on the sides and bottom. I left the top of the pocket open, so I could use it like a real pocket. The top of the pocket is the finished edge of the scarf. It looks nice and neat. 

 

I cut about 6 inches from the bottom of the t-shirt. I pinned the scarf around the bottom of the shirt. Every body is different so your desired shirt length might be different from mine. Measure to see how long you want your shirt to be.

 

I put the right sides of the scarf and the shirt together and used a zigzag stitch. I gathered the scarf fabric together a little as I stitched. The scarf was just a little bigger than the shirt. The fullness of the scarf will make the big ruffle around the hips.

 

 The scarf was a long circle but I cut it to make my pocket. I connected the circle again to make the big ruffle/peplum around the bottom of my t-shirt. 

 

My St. Patrick's Day shirt is done. It is fun for the holiday and I like the white and green together. I think I have a bit of Miss Frizzle in me. Her clothes always matched the show topic. I love making clothes like this. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

***Year End Update- I have been saving this for March. It is a holiday shirt and it will come back then.