As previously mentioned, I seem to have become a Refashioning addict and can’t stay away from rails of men’s shirts in charity shops! This is my third Get Shirty project and will be the last before the deadline for the community challenge, although definitely not the last ever.
I think one of the main benefits of the three projects has been the opportunity to experiment, sometimes successfully and other times not. There is one pale green linen shirt, sans sleeves, lurking in a corner which has been pinned, re-pinned, generally faffed around with and finally abandoned. I will use the fabric for something eventually but I don’t want to look at it again for the time being.
For this project I reverted back to the pattern I used the first time round for this top which is a bit unadventurous but this is a shape that I really like and I know I will get use out of it.
I had planned to make something more like a jacket keeping the buttons at the front. With all three refashions I’ve decided to keep the button band intact because it seems such a waste not to but I need to branch out a bit more! The jacket plan didn’t work out because the top doesn’t look right unbuttoned. However, I’ve already worn the refashion twice and after a day in the office I’ve decided that I’m really pleased with it. It is slightly strange buttoning up the ‘wrong’ way but I can live with that.
Here’s what I started with. Its a really good quality fabric and I love the colour and the stripes. It was only £3.99 but I can’t remember where from (I’ll confess to having bought two other shirts on the same day so lost track of locations). I’d already removed the pocket when I remembered I needed to take a Before photo. There is a very faint reminder on the fabric of where the pocket was but I’m hoping it will gradually disappear with washing.
The construction was pretty much the same as last time except that I re-traced the pattern as a size 6 for a more fitted shape. The differences/improvements were :
- I used French seams throughout. I don’t think I’ve ever done these on garments before, only shopping bags, and I was so pleased with the result. I wasn’t sure how they would work for inserting the sleeves but it was easier than I thought. I had to pin the sleeves on while Doris was wearing the top to make sure I got the wrong sides together first time round. I love how neat everything looks inside.
- I made false cuffs on the sleeves. This is my new favourite thing because it is so quick and effective and works well for ¾ length sleeves. I don’t like sleeves that get in the way, which they often do because of my short arms!
- I changed the buttons. The existing ones were a bit too shiny and plasticy and had the brand name printed on them so I found some stripy ones for £1 (for 8) at The Eternal Maker.
- The shirt had a different, narrow striped fabric on the inside of the cuffs and yoke and I was able to use this for the back facing. You can’t see it but I know it’s there!
- I used the free fabric marking pen from Love Sewing magazine to keep my top stitching neat and ensure that it caught the facing all the way round. I pinned the facing on the reverse and then drew a line with the white pen on the right side over the pins, took out the pins and then sewed. Basic stuff but I hate it if I go off piste. On the subject of sewing magazines, I do seem to have got a bit sucked in lately to buying these each month, I’m so easily tempted by the free patterns etc. Having just checked the Love Sewing website to make sure I was mentioning the right magazine I found a link to a tutorial for a Japanese style apron from The Hearty Home which I’ve been looking for since spotting this one from Toast. I might never have found it if I hadn’t bought the magazine!
What I need now is a project to use up discarded shirt pockets! Any ideas?
Jane Makes 