Men's Dress Shirt to MY SHIRT!

So today has been so much fun! We played at the park, went to the library, made some good food, and {so exciting} finally made my own shirt.

I had seen the tutorial from Made for a little girl's shirt dress and have been saving some dress shirts. However, when I looked at them today they spoke to ME instead.

This is what it looked like before:
And after:

Aahh! I'm so excited. I'm still wearing it right now and I'll probably wear it tomorrow. It's just too cute. I can't wait to get my hands on the other shirts I saved. You could add ruffles and flowers and ribbons and wow, the possibilities are endless. {yes, I'm having fun}

In case you want to know how to make one yourself, I have a tutorial for you.


I started by laying down a shirt that is of similar material on top of the men's dress shirt (sorry I don't have any more specific measurements for you - this is a new shirt from Down East Basics that I love).

I cut around the sides and arms of the shirt, leaving 1/4 inch seam allowance. (I actually ended up making it a bit smaller in the top than planned. It works great for me, but next time I might leave a little bit more room. Maybe give yourself 1/2 inch.

The back of a dress shirt is often longer than the front. I trimmed the back of the shirt, leaving allowance for a new hem line. I doubled the fabric over and hemmed before I sewed the sides together.

I trimmed off the cuffs and then trimmed the material just under the two small collar buttons. Make sure this is symmetrical. I also trimmed the back of the neck into a slight scoop-neck.

I lined up my example shirt right on the shoulder seam line of the dress shirt. I took that line and tucked the extra shoulder fabric under and hemmed on top. Perfect.

I didn't want the back of the shirt to look like it had been a men's shirt. So this is what it looked like before.

I took out the stitching, then ruffled and pinned.

And this is what I ended up with. I love it. So feminine and such a slight detail that makes it seem more professional.

Next I moved on to the sleeves. I cut off the seam where the old sleeve had been attached to the shirt.

I realized that the width worked perfect because on the top of the sleeve there are some small pleats. And it was okay if it was wider at the arm opening, because it would have elastic around inside of it.

I put right sides of the sleeve and the shirt {with sewn sides} together and pinned the sleeve in place on the shirt, pinning for the pleating on the top as well. Sew together.

Hem the outside edge of the sleeves to have a finished edge.

I then stretched and sewed elastic all right around the inside of the sleeve, right next to the hem line. I would recommend using the 1/8 or whatever the small size of elastic is over a larger one. I think I used a 3/8 inch. It works, but it was SO tight on my arm. I shouldn't have stretched it quite so much maybe. I ended up cutting the elastic in 4 places so my arms wouldn't fall off. They wanted to. In the end, I ended up taking out the piece of elastic that was on the very front of the sleeves, on both sides.

I think they look super cute.

This is me being very happy in my new little shirt. Please comment or email me if you have more questions. I plan on doing this again. I will take more detailed pictures of the sleeve making then.

Here's the side view of the sleeve. You can see how it is flat on the front and puckered around. I still think it looks good and my arms are happy about it, too.

Just in case you wanted to see the back of the shirt. So cute. Love my new belt from Gap on clearance $6.99!

AND I did make some good food tonight.

We simply call these triangles in our house. The original recipe comes from a Costco cookbook, but I've changed it a bit.

TRIANGLES

1 red pepper
2 green pepper
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1-2 cups salsa
2 cups shredded cheese (I like cheddar and pepper jack)
2-3 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
tortillas
butter

Mix all ingredients together. Heat a frying pan. Get a tortilla, cut off three sides with rounded points (looks like a triangle). Scoop a heaping spoon of your pepper mix inside the tortilla. Fold a point over, fold another point over (with a light buttering between them - it will seal it), then fold the final corner over with butter under it. The little package should be in the shape of a triangle. Put butter (I just use my fingers in my spreadable butter bucket) on the side with all the folds and place that side down in the heated frying pan. Butter the top. When one side is browned, flip, then serve.

Serve Triangles with this DIPPING SAUCE (from the Costco cookbook):
4 ounces sour cream
1 1/2 Tbsp lime or lemon juice
1 tsp each: cumin, salt, pepper, chili powder, cayenne pepper
1/4 cup unpacked cilantro

Mix the above together and if it tastes too much like sour cream, add more spices until you like the taste. Very good!
That looks so delicious. I love adding peppers to things.

The sauce and the mixture with cheese added.
And this is what you end up with. Triangles that you will whip up often and sauce that you'll end up doubling. Enjoy!

Linking to:
All Thingz Related

7 comments:

  1. YUM! those triangles look so so good!

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  2. Cute shirt! Wow, I can make a lot of these! I was just thinking about culling shirts from my husband's side of the closet where he has a gazillion of them squished together in there. He wouldn't miss a few, would he?? :-)

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  3. Bonnie - This is amazing! I'm so impressed by all the crafty things you do. Your shirt turned out so cute! My reaction? "Cuuuttee!!"

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  4. This shirt is amazing! You, my friend are doing some pretty cool stuff with that sew machine. Can't wait to see the next project.

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  5. That is SUPER cute! Thanks for joining us for Anything Related #12! ~Bridgette

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  6. very very cute! you are darling btw :)
    Thanks for sharing with me!

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  7. Wow! it's a great creation... I love it, actually it make sense to your style also. Thanks for giving a good tutorial on that and i am going to try this soon.

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