refashion: the combo shirt

 

I’d had both these vintage shirts hanging in my wardrobe for a few months. The spoils of a thrifting trip. The stripe one is a vintage Jaeger but was too short and had a straight hem which was not flattering on me at all. I like me a shirt tail hem….which fortuitously…the grey one had….hmmm…no brainer right?! Here’s how…

 

Trim the first shirt to the point where you want the colour block effect to start, plus desired seam allowance. Don’t cut to close to a button/button hole as we’re going to need to unpick and manipulate those button bands in a bit…

 

Cut the bottom half of the second shirt. Again, give yourself room to manoeuvre on the button plackets. (I ended up cutting about 1″ below that top button in the end)

 

As we’re going to join the two pieces they need to be the same size, so if either the top or the bottom is bigger, like this…

 

Then mark with a pin either side how much it needs to be taken in….

 

Start stitching there, and taper your line of stitching gradually until you meet the original line of stitching as close to the hem as you can. Zig zag and trim, or serge the new edge…

 

Now this is why we needed some wriggle room on the button plackets away from button holes and buttons. Simply joining the 2 pieces together would create too much bulk around the plackets and the join would be partially visible from side on. It just wouldn’t be a clean finish. Just cos it’s a refashion, doesn’t mean we don’t have standards! So unpick the plackets until you can lay them out flat…

 

Then join the two pieces and finish the raw edge….

 

Then press everything, turn the button bands back under, and re stitch the plackets where the original stitching was…

 

Et voila!. Much better!  I’m kicking myself a bit because the button spacing is a bit whack. It’s only just out, but I know it’s there (and so do you now because I just did a sewist classic and pointed it out, lol!) I either need to put another button hole in…or I might settle for a concealed press stud. But the join does line up perfectly at the placket, so I’m giving myself some kudos there considering I totally eyeballed it. (Are you guys serial measurers or do you eyeball it? I tend to flit between the two. I think I have a dual personality as a sewer. Accurate and neat with some things and truly slapdash with others!) The side seams are like a mm off, so near perfect. Overall though, this one is going in the “win” pile. I like.

What do you reckon? You gonna give this one a go?

Oh, btw, the diy for the necklace in this pic can be found here…