Refashion #II -Men's shirt to Women's Peplum Blouse

A few days ago I showed you how you can easily refashion your old shirt and give it a new life...Now I want to show you that not only your old blouses can be restyled ,but you can use your boyfriend's shirts as well!

This time,my task is to make a Peplum Blouse out of men's Oxford shirt

To begin with this project I'll need two XL or XXL if available men's shirt (you'll see why two later)

You'll need  a basic sloper of your size
Put it on your shirt and estimate the right placement you can cut the pattern of -I myself decided to cut it lower then the actual shoulder seams were (see second pic) and to save the reinforcement shoulder piece of the shirt to decorate my new blouse with

Carefully cut off the sleeves ,sides,collar and under the reinforcement to get your "fabric"

Place your pattern in the center of the placket and cut the front pieces

Mark and sew the darts

Cut the back

Mark and sew the darts

Decide where the right placement of the reinforcement on your new shirt will be

Pin it to place on the back and flip it over so you can match the front pierce

Remember that you haven't sewn the shoulders together so you have 1/2" seam allowance to take into consideration !!!

Fold the allowance in on itself as if you had sew it ,do the same to the front pieces

Put both shoulder parts close together and cut the excess of the reinforcement piece to match the cut edges of the new pattern

Sew the reinforcement piece to it's place

Cut the peplum piece of the second men's shirt you have-1 XL shirt's back was enough to cut a seamless full peplum for a size L women's shirt!

Treat the edges with bias tape or make narrow double rolled hem all around but the waist

Sew the peplum to the shirt

Now sew the collar back to the neckline

I had a small hick up at that area-my original pattern's neckline was wider then the standard men's collar ,so I had to improvise ...I used the collar from the second shirt I previously cut for the peplum,and pieced both collars together to complete the 10cm gap I had in my original to short collar (you can barely see the seams on the back ,yet the impro had actually created a very cool doubled new collar )

Cover the raw seams with bias tape for a neat finish

Here I forgot to take pictures of the process,but to make the new sleeves you just follow the same steps as with the bodice stages aka cutting the original sleeve open...removing the cuffs...placing your blouse's sleeve pattern on top and cutting the new sleeves (you may experience some difficulties  with the sleeve's placket but with some jiggling I sure you'll manage )
When your sleeve is sewn together,sew the cuff back on.
NOTE- the cuff of men's shirt will be bigger then women's sloper but,I decided to leave it as is and let it overlap for an additional interest-you just need to replace the original button farther then it was or leave it as is for a more roomy style
Et Vu a La  AWESOME  new oxford Peplum Blouse

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Re-Fashion Re-Create Re-Design

I have had a couple of neat projects on my hands these past few weeks,one of them is refashioning a second hand women's plaid button up shirt and give it a more fashion forward new life .

I thought of it and decided to share the making of process with you (pardon for the bad quality photos ->

I usually work at nights -that is the only quite time I have to work without a destruction from my little ones,so all the photos were taken then,thus no light and lots of pixels ...But,you'll forgive me right ;)

 So lets begin ...

We'll make a sweetheart lace neckline  with cut out laced shoulders and back and introduce  fullness to the hips by inserting a rounded lace godets

You'll need one shirt old or new that fits you well at bust and waist and nice quality lace -I got mine in Tel Aviv for an outrageous $45 per meter,though it's stunning and made of 100% cotton fiber which is a huge plus for me as synthetic fibers are not working that well in hot weather and it always nice to have a natural fiber close to your skin

 Start by marking the true waist line of the shirt (it usually will be located around 43-45 cm downwards  measured from the highest point of neckline)

Right under,it's where the godets will be placed-though you can make them higher and locate them at under-bust

 Mark the center of the shirt -will be located on the button placket

 Draw a sweetheart shape neckline on a craft paper and trace it to the shirt with a removable marker

 Determent the width of the cut out godet (NOTE-the inserted lace godet have to be MUCH larger then the cut out piece to make the hip area full !!!)  

 Mark the placement of the godets and cut

 I find it easier to cut one side then fold and cut the other side

 Do the cutting of the side and back godets 

 This is how your shirt will look like after all the godets were cut

 Now cut the sweetheart neckline

Use the cut out as a template for the lace pieces-make sure to cut 1 cm larger all around for seam allowance  

Lace parts are ready 

Now make the cut ends of the shirt pretty -I used bias tape 

Sew the lace parts together

Attach the lace where the plaid was 

Hem the godets  with bias tape or whatever method you find easier  

Sew the lace inserts in place-see how the lace 

godets are much wider then the original cut out was^^

and now... find the difference between the upper^ and bottom photo
*hint-it's all about the hem

Trim the godets  to a nice circular shape and hem

That's it.......

You've got yourself a brand new stylish button up with lace inserts shirt!

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