'MakeOver Monday' - Shirt REfashion #1

'MakeOver Monday' 

... sharing how I cut up items from my wardrobe

in the hope you'll pick up scissors & start cutting up yours!

I nearly didn't rescue this gorgeous light-as-a-feather frilly bibbed cotton blousey shirt covered in masses of pretty indigo/charcoal hydrangreas 

because 

even though she fitted beautifully around my widest bits, the colours were great & the style perfect

she fell way too short in length

which meant unless I was prepared to REfashion her

I'd need to adopt a permanent stoop

or risk revealing parts of my anatomy which I'd rather not

to diagnose the 'issues'

I wore her as-is around the house for a day 

and found that along with being too short 

the sleeves turned out to be a tad tight...

which was the answer to the dilemma of where to get the extra fabric needed for length 

I should mention at this stage that I also rescued her sister during the same op-shop visit

and because I want to show two different REfashions (not in the same post]

I opted to keep a cap sleeve on this one

and work with what I had 

once everything was separated  

there was also a length of elastic creating a ruching detail in the side seams 

which needed to be removed so I could work with straight hemlines 

- the elastic could always be stitched back in if I wanted cos the effect was quite sweet

sometimes there's a teeny-tiny bit of science involved in REfashioning

where it's neccessary to work out how deep your strips of fabric can be

[measure twice or 5x and cut once!]

- essentially it's at this point I knew my vision was either going to work or 

crash & burn

it turned out I had plenty to play with

especially if I didn't get too pedantic about trimming away original seams

there aren't photos for each of the next steps

as I wasn't sure how descriptive you'd like me to be - if you'd like more detail please don't hesitate in letting me know for future Motivational Mondays

- once the strips were stitched end-to-end forming a circle the seams were overlocked

- along with the top edge 

- then I read my overlocker manual and changed the settings in order to achieve a rolled hem along the bottom edge

- back to the sewing machine and two rows of gathering stitch were sewn along the top edge [longest stitch length on your machine] and gathered in the desired amount

- the overlocked edge was slipped under the original hem stitching and stitched in place, from the top

to finish the sleeve edges the original cuffs and tabs were deconstructed, joined together, ironed, trimmed and stitched in place

I should mention there's quite a bit of trying on goes on during the process

ie. when the sleeves were cut to check they were the right length - I did cut them slightly higher

the strip of gathering got pinned in place prior to any stitching in place just to check it wasn't too long - it wasn't

and when I was working out how the sleeves would look I pinned and checked the band before committing to sewing it

and I'm glad I did 

because I couldn't be happier with the outcome...

not sure when I'll take her off

probably tomorrow 

when I start working on this sweety

 in time for next weeks Motivational Monday

ps.please dont hesitate to comment on what I've shared 

especially if you have thoughts on how I could improve the presentations

- I'd like to keep doing Motivational Mondays not entirely for selfish reasons being there's heaps of clothes in my wardrobe that need attention 

but more importantly 

I'd like to think you'll see the merits in using what you've got
and feel motivated to pick up your scissors 
and start cutting up your wardrobe! x