For me “refashion” does not simply mean recovering the fabric from a garment and making  another garment but also recombining the existing elements to give new life and meaning to an old garment. I’ve always been quite attracted by the styles merging the very masculine with the very feminine so the idea of taking a men’s dress shirt and mixing it with the feminine shape of the victorian underbust corset, as my first refashion was very exciting to me.

The road was not without bumps. I had no clear view of how to go about it and spells of “I don’t have enough fabric” anxiety.  So here it is: my first refashion and I’m very pleased with the result. I anticipate I’ll be wearing this a lot.

Process outline:

The original shirt – a men’s size 42 dress shirt in cotton twill.

Take off the collar unit and the cuffs and form a neck dart.

Mirror everything from one side to another ( I used tailors wax tracing paper and a tracing wheel to do so).

Blend the neckline and trim the excess.

Measure and cut along a line under the bust leaving intact the button placket and including seam allowances.

Pin, measure and cut the sleeves and sides to create a sloping/drop shoulder short sleeve which also has the effect of reducing the overall fullness of the shirt.

Pin a couple of pleats in the sleeve, make a slit and attach the cuffs. Depending on the original shirt size they are potentially going to be smaller than your bicep circumference. I ended up by creating an extension tab with two buttons to close the gap.

Measure the neckline opening, shorten the original collar stand accordingly and use it to create a mandarin collar.

Gather the excess fabric under bust and at the back

Drape a form fitting midsection from a large strip of fabric. Be sure to cut based on the abdomen circ + ease + sa. I mistakenly did not and ended up having to insert some triangles at the sides.

I pinned also a couple of darts to help shaping the back. I considered doing so for the front also but in the end I decided against it as I prefer it more relaxed. With the remaining fabric from the body and the sleeves create a long strip (under bust circ. + hips circ. times three)…

…and create 1″ pleats. I used some light fusible interfacing to help hold the pleats because my fabric was too soft and drapey.

Attach a row of pleats and the original shirt tails&hem (reduced in size to fit the waist piece) to the bottom of the waist piece.

Attach the waist piece to the upper bodice sandwiching in between another row of pleats.

Attach the waist piece to the button placket. Trim the button placket and close the hem! Done!

Thank you again to Portia for inviting me. When she asked me to join the stellar cast of this year’s Refashioners I must admit I felt a bit scared.  Honored but scared. First I never did a refashion before and second have you seen the heavy talent she enrolled!!!

Talent that includes you Sasha! Wow! Hard to believe Sasha’s never refashioned before. But this is exactly why I’ll often approach sewers who don’t refashion to be part of the blogger challenge. You just get a fresher take on things that way. One of the biggest aims of The Refashioners is to show refashioning in a different light. That as well as it’s eco credentials,  it can be creative, edgy, modern, individual and uber cool. Think I just aptly described Sasha’s refashion there don’t you? Job done then!

You can find Sasha here and here. We are almost at the end of a month of  refashion inspiration and ideas!  Next week sees the community challenge element gather pace and don’t forget amazing prizes to be won as part of The Refashioners 2015 Community Challenge.  So get involved for a chance to win!!! Grab a shirt and get refashioning! You have until Sunday 27th Sept to enter!