Rustic Refashion: Womens Shirt Refashion

One night earlier this week one of my daughters was distraught because an update on her mobile Minecraft program had altered a 'world' she had been building for well over a year. I did my best to assure her it was going to be ok (but honestly, I couldn't promise this - Minecraft is a generational divide I cannot bridge, and I had no idea if it would infact be 'ok'). But I continued to console her, telling her she would work it out the following day when she had time to 'explore' the newly altered world. It did turn out to be ok the following day, and all was well for her again.

But not for me, because here I am a few days later struggling to work out how to navigate my photo program after an update altered it beyond recognition. So apologies in advance, as I struggle to work my way through the changes. As such the photos on the steps taken to create this refashion are nearly non-existent and I will try my best to explain the steps I took to complete this project.

After my recent glut of grey winter clothing I headed to the opshop looking for colour on the discount rack.

I found this large womens shirt for $1.

Isn't it lovely?

Remember this refashion where I turned a maxi dress into a jumpsuit. Despite that being by far my viewed post thanks to lots of shares on Pinterest, I decided that jumpsuits just weren't my thing and turned that badboy into the most comfy pyjama pants ever. which clash nicely with this this floral monstrosity.

I had originally planned on making this shirt a skirt. But after removing some rather large shoulder pads, I realised enough length had been added to be able to turn it into a winter mini dress....

And this is where the photos dry up, but in a nutshell I did the following steps to convert this to a dress.

1. I cut off the collar because I don't think collars suit me.

2. I reversed the shirt - the back of the shirt became the front of my dress because I quite liked the pleat thing the shirt had at the back as a front detail on the dress.

Because this fabric has a lot going on it was quite hard to photograph - but if you squint you might see the pleat I'm talking about.

3. I sewed the button panel closed and then cut the panel off.

This photo shows the seam where the bottom panel used to be.

I then used the button panel I had removed to give the neck line a more finished look.

I did this by first removing the buttons from the panel, then folding the button panel over the top of the raw edge of the neck line where the collar had been cut off, then sewed it in place.

4. I took in the sleeves for a narrower fit.

5. And I also took in part of the bodice to create an A-line fall on the dress.

You can see in this photo the new A-line shape, which I created by taking the dress in under the arms and gradually tappering it out to the original width of the shirt near the hem of the dress.

6. I then used the collar I had removed to create a detail on the back of the dress so it was less 'sack' like.

To do this I sewed the raw edge of the collar under and faced it into the back of the dress, and adjusted the length until I liked the way it sat while the dress was on. I didn't sew this in place across the width of the back, only at the two ends as this allows more movement and comfort when wearing the dress.

The first day I wore this dress I had so many positve comments from all sorts of people. I must admit I loved saying it only cost me $1.

The back.

Some people say 'older' women shouldn't wear minis, and while I prefer not to wear them unless I've got some leggings on under, this has more to do with me being worried about wardrobe malfunctions than me thinking it is age inappropriate.