The Refashioners 2015 – Oonaballoona

When Portia asked me if I wanted to refashion a man’s shirt, my response was HEEEWWWWWL NO. I can barely bring myself to make a man’s shirt from scratch. Could I actually bring myself to deconstruct and then reconstruct menswear?! And come out sane? I thought not.

But that Portia has a way with words. So flattering was her response to my tepid reply, my psyche would’ve be more bruised by refusing the challenge than by picking up the seam ripper. The clinching sentence on that lovely emaiI: “Shirts are just fabric and you’re awesome with fabric. ‘Nuff said.”

CHARMER! Was my response. And I was in.

Now, there was zero chance that I was going to snag a shirt from Ruggy’s closet for this challenge, seeing as how I’m made him 3 shirts in my 7 years of sewing , only 1 of those being wearable. That’s just bad math. A few short weeks later, this arrived from our fearless leader’s neck of the woods:

I did NOT want to rip this up! In fact, I wanted to give it straight to my Dad, a very stylish guy! I was stumped, which began another Portia conversation, involving her Lolita vision of me turning it into a woven Watson bra, then me picturing my dad in a Watson bra, then me needing to go wash my brain.

After a thorough rinsing, I got to ripping. Kiiiiind of. I hacked the sleeves and collar off, then cut it open at the side seams. To be honest, I was all about as little seam rippage as possible on this reboot. Although I am aware that the whole refashion thing is about being green, this was admittedly not my primary concern.  I was more into being happy and not worrying about scraps.The sleeves and collar went into the remnants bin without a thought of reappearing in the reboot. Mea culpa.

I flipped one front panel upside down and re-buttoned the front pieces, shifting the buttons up by one to get a pleasing print placement. Why did I do that? Hard to say. Maybe I thought there was (*extremely slight and now completely unnoticeable in hindsight*) twinning on the original shirt? Maybe it made me feel like I was really refashioning the shirt?? Maybe the gin and tonic was especially ginny that evening?

Imma go with ginny. Because my next step was going to be pleating and draping and pulling this into a cute top on my dressform, and I abandoned that route seconds after beginning it. Instead, I reached for my little pile of vintage patterns and came up with Simplicity 6284, a three piece women’s suit. The vest had two simple pattern pieces. BOOM.

I used the original placket and changed up the buttons from black plastic to blonde wood, for a bit more tiki vibe, and used red braided piping for my seam finishes. Just stitched and turned under. Less worry, more happy.

Though the pattern had a little gapiosis in the front, requiring an extra dart at the neckline, the back fit beautifully. I love the racerback vibe!

And it gives me enough armsyce coverage, which, guys. I HATE it when my shirts show Texan sized real estate of arm cleavage. What’s that you say, you can’t really tell from these shots? Again, mea culpa. I’ll let you in on a little secret: Ruggy full on ABHORS this vintage denim skirt. But I did think it was the perfect mate for this crop top. I’ve tried to wear this skirt out once on a date night. The look on his face was so pained, I changed immediately. Guys. If you know how I dress, you know that this look said a lot. And then I made him take eighty pictures of it.

I think he had a hard time doing it. To wit, what  is the focal point of this next shot?

Mmmm hmmm. What a pretty red wall. But there’s the armscye for ya. Thanks for bearing the vibe, Ruggy.

And thanks for nudging me into this, Portia! I love my little top, and since diving into this challenge, I’ve refashioned three RTW tops in my closet into a more pleasing configuration! This refashioning thing is infectious!

Ha ha! As are you my lovely, lol! But you had to go and remind me of that conversation about your Dad in a Lolita style Watson bra didn’t you?! Now I’m picturing it all over again. Sorry Papa Balloona!! 😉 So, yes. I selected this shirt. Well I had to pick something a touch “kerching” for Oonaballona didn’t I?! But it’s a case in point in terms of looking at shirts as fabric. Those really crazy 80s print shirts you see but would never wear? They may not be de rigeur as they are but boy do they make awesome sun tops! Look for huge oversized mens shirts in crazy prints and get chopping!

You can find Ooonaballoona here and here. 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! Stay tuned for more inspiration throughout the WHOLE of August!