Refashioning: Oversized Shirt into Separates - Shirt and Skirt (V Shaped Body Type to Pear Shaped Fix)

I got this shirt in Thailand for around $1.60. I just liked the cartoon print of it and knew I could do something with it.

Actually, at this point, I've already taken in the back neckline to bring the shoulders closer together. It used to be a huge scoop neckline. Also, the sleeves were way too big for my arms. Obviously, it was made for someone who had much broader shoulder and thicker arms--maybe a ladyboy? Who knows. Anyways, this sistah is pear shaped, so. . .I thought if I took in the neckline and sleeves, the problem would be fixed, but as you can see, I'm still not gonna wear it!

Another problem is that this shirt was just so far over the top, and what I call "Miami Chic" meaning "cheap and tacky." I feel like I should be wearing a ton of gold chains and hoop earrings with stilettos, and. . .that ain't my style.

Here you can see how I took in the back neckline.

All right, so if I was going to save this shirt, I was going to need to spread the love a little bit. So I cut it in half.

Using some black jersey, I cut out a three inch waist band for the top of the bottom of the shirt. 

It was about to become a skirt.

Then I cut out a 9 inch band of jersey to put on the bottom of the top of the shirt.

Here is the skirt band.

I finally found a bodkin! So...here I am using my bodkin to thread some elastic through the waistband.

Then, I stitched the elastic together and sewed the rest of the waistband seam to close the hole.

Skirt.

Here is the band going on the bottom of the top of the shirt.

Finished.

Okay, so...yes, there is still a lot going on, but at least now I can wear the pieces separately and not look as gross. Even just adding the wide black waist section breaks up the craziness a bit, if I wanted to wear them together. Adding the waistbands has now added shape to an otherwise shapeless garment. I may actually get rid of this entire outfit soon, but I wanted at least to show you how you could salvage and elevate some of those oversized T-shirts you may currently be wearing as pajamas!

The End!

Refashioning: Jake the Pirate Costume from a Lady's Suit

I love my job, but sometimes it requires doing the most random things.

I am a secretary for my church. We had a Disney themed Easter egg hunt this past Saturday. My pastor's wife asked me to make a Jake and the Neverland Pirates vest for one of the teenagers to wear.

This is what Jake the Pirate looks like:

So, I was going to buy all the fabric needed, but as I was out driving, I thought I would stop into a thrift store just to see what they had. They had this lady's suit for $.50. It was just about the right size in the bodice, so I thought...why make a whole vest from scratch, when I could just work around something already made?

I went to Wal-Mart and got a few other supplies: yellow blanket binding, four yellow buttons, yellow thread, and iron-on facing...or what I thought was iron-on facing...

First step was to cut out the shoulder pads and cut off the sleeves.

It had patch pockets on the front that needed taking off as well. They were attached from the back to the front, so this is what I did to take care of this problem: 

This bottom hem would be covered in yellow binding, so it didn't matter that it was showing on the front.

Okay, next, I had to remove the collar because if you scroll back up to the Jake picture, you will see that it isn't right.

So, fortunately, since the skirt came with the blazer, I had enough fabric to make a new collar. I cut the elastic off the top of the skirt.

Okay, using the original collar as as sort of guide, I drew a new collar around it on paper I pieced together.

The first collar wasn't quite right. It sat too low. (Wow. I look very frazzled in this picture!)

So, through trial and error, I finally drew a collar pattern that I thought would work.

The main thing I wanted was for the collar to stand up a little bit in the back. The original pattern didn't do that.

Okay, so this is the part that really started to stress me out. I thought I had bought iron-on facing, because when I asked the lady at Wal-Mart, "Wear is your iron-on facing?" she lead me to the roll of the stuff I bought. . .which was actually iron-on adhesive! Grrrr. . .But I didn't have all this time to run back to Wal-Mart and get the right thing, because as I said before, I was at work. Meaning: I had other things I had to get done besides making vests! So, in the words of Tim Gunn, it was a "Make-It-Work moment.". . .

So I made two large pieces of double-sided fabric, essentially. It didn't have the body I wanted for the collar to stand up nicely, but at least it had a little stiffness--albeit heavy. I laid the double-sided fabric on top of each other and pinned my pattern to it and cut out the pieces.

Then, I stitched up the back seam of the collar pieces. 

Here is the middle back of the neck of the vest, denoted with a pin.

Then, I sewed the binding onto the vest, and very casually mitered the corners. (Again, not a lot of time to do it perfectly.)

Excuse my foot in this picture.

Then, I sewed the binding onto the collar.

Remember that pin in the middle back of the neck of the vest? I matched that to the middle seam of the collar, pinned them both together, and sewed them together.

Then, I tacked down the points of the bottom of the collar. (You can see the one on the left was tacked and the one on the right wasn't yet.)

I had left about 1/2" of sleeve so that I could use that as seam allowance. I folded that 1/2" under and sewed both sleeves up.

Last step: buttons!

This was a peasant blouse that I reworked to make the Jake shirt. (Forgot to take pictures of this process.)

I made the headband and cummerbund out of some Wal-Mart poly-satin.

And here is what he looked like at the egg hunt! If I had had him in person to fit things on, I would have taken the vest in a bit, but anyways, he looks cute!

And here I am at the same egg hunt. I am supposed to be Cruella Deville, but the white hairspray I used turned out grey. Oh well! (That "fur stole" is a tube of faux fur that I made in about two minutes at the last possible second!)

The End!