Pallet for Home: Upcycle me something pretty! part 2

Upcycle me something pretty! part 2

Friday, September 28, 2012

It's day 2 of Upcycle me something pretty and this outfit came from some knit I had and my Husband's old dress shirt that was fraying at the collar and the cuffs.

I love how it turned out.

The shirt is definitely more feminine than an old man's dress shirt.

Wait, I don't mean my man is old, just the shirt.

Anyway, let's start with the skirt. That was the easy part.

Cut a few long strips of your fabric and pinch gather, or gather like normal. It's your choice.

For the skirt part, I used one of my other skirts as a pattern, adding a little for seam allowance and the gathered waistline since I'm not putting in a zipper.

Sew the sides together and turn right side out.

Decide where you want the ruffles to be placed. Measure from the bottom of the skirt and pin in place to make sure the ruffle line is straight.

Add the other ruffles, as many as you want. More would be cute, but this was all the fabric I had.

Add a normal elastic waistband. You can see how I did another one here.

Now the skirt's done.

On to the shirt. Sorry I didn't take a before pic of the shirt, but you've seen one man's dress shirt, you've seen them all. The design doesn't change that much.

I'm using one of my Ann Taylor shirts that I LOVE! as a loose pattern.

First let's cut the shirt apart, collar, sleeves, and side seams.

Fold the back piece in half and cut a new back using your other shirt as a pattern. You can see I'm raising the arm hole a little so it's not so baggy on me.

Put the back piece on top of the front piece and trim the sides to match, but be sure the buttons are buttoned so the front is matched up correctly.

Now for the sleeve. Cut it all the way apart and remove the seams.

Serge or zig-zag the shoulder seams only for the shirt.

Open up the shirt and lay the cut off sleve in the space and trim to fit the curve of the arm hole like shown.

If you wanted a gathered shoulder seam you could make the sleeve wider and gather before adding to the shirt.

Pin the sleeve in place and sew. You could top stitch the seam if you wanted to give it a more professional finish. I think I forgot that step here, but it's OK.

After the sleeve is in place, sew up the side seam. I also trimmed the bottom edge so that it was straight across.

Hem the bottom edge here too.

I wanted to pretty up the sleeve so I added a piece of elastic that was exactly 1/2 the length of the sleeve. Stretch and sew in place.

Here's what it looks like from the right side out.

The neck line was a little baggy for my taste so I added a few pin-tucks to the neck line alternating the lengths.

Try it on and add more or less depending on how it fits you.

I added another piece of elastic to the waistline on the inside to make it a tunic design. Put the shirt on and decide where your natural waist falls and pin in place. Mark the shirt all the way around and cut a piece of elastic that is a little shorter than your waist measurement. Stretch and sew in place. I ended up adding another shorter piece in the front to give it a little more tighter gather.