So here is the thing, I have never participated in a sewing-related challenge before, even though I love following them online. So when the Refashioners 2015 started I was really excited and loved reading the blog posts, especially because some of my favourite bloggers were participating. Still it took several calls for submissions from the community until I asked myself, why not join the fun? It’s not that refashioning is something I am not familiar with. I love flea markets and charity shops and have refashioned lots of clothes, mainly tapering jeans or shortening skirts but I tried my hand at a couple of men’s shirts as well.

So I decided to go for it and once I had made the decision I started plotting. I had a look at a couple of shirt refashions on Pinterest but quickly realised that I didn’t want to feel like I had copied someone else. So I went straight to the charity shop and tried to find a shirt that inspired me. Originally I had wanted to play with stripes (I just love Dixie’s shorts) but since I couldn’t find a nice striped shirt I settled for this chambray one. The shirt has a very nice quality with lots of details like cute little tags and embroideries. Since it was a size L and had long sleeves there was a lot of fabric to work with and I decided to make separates as I am loving the coordinated separates trend. I went for top and skirt as the shirt already had a nice curved hemline which would work well for a skirt.

  
In a first step I tried to figure out the shortest skirt length I could get away with and cut the shirt in half. Then I took off the sleeves and the collar. First I wanted to get rid of the collar but it just felt wrong to throw away something that was so beautifully constructed and I decided to use it as a design feature. I then interfaced all the skirt pieces to give it a little bit more structure. Using one of my favourite miniskirts as a guide I added darts in the front and in the back and took in the sides. For the waistband I decided to use the collar. As this obviously wasn’t a giant’s shirt (and I am not that tiny either) the collar was way too small to fit my waist. Looking at the rest of the shirt closely I realised that the cuffs had almost the same width. So I cut the collar in half, added in the two cuff pieces and the waistband was born. I kind of love the quirkiness it adds to the skirt, at the same time I feel like wearing a huge shirt around my waist and am tempted to add a bow tie to complete the look ;-)

To finish the skirt off I added another button hole to the bottom to avoid indecency and put the two pockets on the back. First I thought this might be a little bit too much but in the end I really like the 70s look it gives the skirt.

For the top I was left with not that much fabric. Even though I wanted to go for a cropped look, I knew I wouldn’t feel comfortable with showing that much midriff (I find it rather fascinating that British teenage girls don’t seem to have that problem at all). Luckily the sleeves provided enough fabric to add a decency-hem to the bottom. I love the look of botton back tops but never make them due to all the effort they involve. This time the botton band was already there and I just had to use it. So I turned the top around, which left me with a slightly awkward looking front yoke. I’ve been seeing lots of tops lately with similar features but never felt drawn towards this look. Here I tried to embrace it and it is actually not that bad after all.

In the back I cut the strips from the sleeves at a slight angle and left the sides where they meet at the button band open. At the top I added one of the little buttons from the cuff to close it. It is still visible where the pockets were attached to the shirt, the fabric was slightly darker below and the holes from the stitches are still visible. It doesn’t bother me that much and I hope that with wear and washing the difference will not be that noticeable anymore.

So this is it. I have to say that this was by far the most elaborate refashion I have ever done (it took me one evening and one morning to finish it) and I really enjoyed it. I realised that with refashions I like to not have a detailed plan but let the garment and the different design features inspire me. I loved how one thing let to the other and that I ended up with two garments that I can see myself wearing a lot (however probably more as separates than together). Thanks Portia for giving me a reason to work on my refashion skills!