A Shirt Sleeve Refashion

 Hello Readers. I liked the colors of this black and tan outfit. But it did not fit well at all. Let's rework this outfit from top to bottom and make something better.

Before and after.

 

The shirt was too long, the sleeves had weird cuffs that were too tight, the pants were too long... Let's go.

 

I started by cutting the sleeves. I angled my cut towards the shirt. This sleeve is really full and as a short sleeve it will be ruffled and cute. This also removes the long cuffs that were tight on me. Do I have big arms? I don't know, but this will fix the problem and look cute.

 

 I used my serger on the cut edge then I went to the sewing machine, turned the edge under once and stitched it down.

 

I cut the shirt shorter in length. It was very long on me and I knew I wanted to tuck it in. The original length was a little too much to tuck.

 

I used my serger on the cut edge again, turned the edge under and stitched it down with my sewing machine. 

 

The shirt had a new shape now. I liked the fluttery sleeves a lot. The weather will get warmer soon so short sleeves will be great. 

 

These khaki pants were also great but the legs were a bit too long. (#shortgirlproblems)

 

I cut off a couple inches from the pant legs. 

 

I made a new hem and the pants were done.
 

My whole black and tan outfit came together nicely. It has been really rainy here so this was perfect with my raincoat from last time. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poofy Dress Week #3-Adding Sleeves

 Hello Readers. I am into the loose poofy dresses that are popular right now. They are fun and so  comfortable because there is no tight waistband! I love it. Today's post is poofy dress 2 and I found it at a thrift store. The color reminded me of Barbie, who I love. But I didn't love the straps, I kind of wanted sleeves. Big sleeves.

Before and after.

This dress was great but it was too long for me. Or I was too short for it. Either way, we need to fix this. I couldn't make that lower tier shorter. It would look weird if the bottom tier was half the length of the others. It had to be fully removed. That was fine because I had an idea about what to do with that extra fabric. 

I removed so may stitches. My seam ripper got a work out. This took a while but I wanted the edges intact. I couldn't cut it off, that would mess up the length of the tier above it.

I was working on this for quite a while. I had second thoughts but I kept going. When I make a decision, I follow through. Even if it is much more tedious than I thought it would be. I don't know if this is a strength, it is just what I do. 

 

I did cut the straps off the back of the dress. 

 

I pulled the straps from the front over the shoulders and sewed them in place in the back where the back straps used to be. These are the beginnings of my sleeves.

 

I cut the tier in half and used one half for one sleeve and one half for the other. I draped the fabric over the shoulder strap. I pinned it to the strap. The fabric had a pretty ruffled edge that I used at the shoulder. It matches the little ruffled edge at the neckline and looks great.

 

I pinned the sleeve all around the strap and then to the dress, under the arm. I had more fabric than I needed so I cut off some of the extra fabric. Everyone's arm size is different, so the measurement around the arm and over the shoulder will differ. The sleeve is still nice and poofy.

 

I sewed the sleeve to the strap and connected the sleeve together under the arm. 

 

It looked kind of like this. I liked the square neckline but I thought the sleeves needed a little more something.

 

I decided to add narrow elastic around the sleeves, about 2-3 inches from the ends of the sleeves to make a nice puffy sleeve. 

 

Sleeve close-up! 

 

 I was loving these sleeves and I was ready for a Barbie Re-watch party. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

 

***Year End Update***- This dress is so fun. I wore it a lot until cold weather hit.