The Refashioners 2015 – Ute

How refashioning a shirt can make you feel awesome

Seriously. I don’t even like wearing shirts. Or skirts. Or having my picture taken. But in this outfit I feel awesome and even cool and fashionable. That does not happen very often. Be prepared to see a lot of pics in this post.

To make it a little less boring we took the photos in different locations in the parliamentary district of Berlin, so you are also getting a little tour of one of my favorite spots in the city.

When the lovely Portia invited me to be part of The Refashioners 2015 with a guest post on her blog, I said yes without hesitation. And then I found out who else is part of it this year and nearly fainted. I frantically browsed my “sewing inspiration” pinterest board and surprisingly almost immediately found something I really liked.

source; source
One phone call to my dad later and I even had a white shirt. That actually fit me without any changes and pretty much looked like the perfect white shirt to me. I was very reluctant to cut into it.

As you can see, my modifications were very moderate and at first I was skeptical if it would even classify as a “refashion”.

I simply chopped off the sleeves and free handedly drew a new high low hem line. The new hem was bound with wide satin bias binding which gives it a bit more structure and stability similar to the inspiration shirt. I tried to recreate the collar of the shirt on the right, but in the end liked the original collar better.

Like I mentioned above, I don’t really like wearing skirts. But I had started to secretly covet a midi skirt for a while now.
To recreate the look I used the fabulous Brumby Skirt pattern by Megan Nielsen (which is part of the awesome prize package you can win for sewing along!) in the softest viscose ever (from Anna Ka Bazaar)

I could be Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday, right? (image source)

And that´s it! Now go find a shirt and get shirty with us! I already know what my next refashion will be.

Thank you so much Portia, for asking me to be part of The Refashioners! And since I already feel like I have just received an Oscar – a big thank you to my colleague Michael for taking these pictures and thanks for the shirt, Dad!

Ute, thank you so much! I LOVE this! Just goes to show how a few simple changes can turn a shirt into something that is uniquely you, right?! You can find Ute here and here. As she says, the Brumby Skirt pattern by Megan Nielsen is just one of the amazing prizes to be won as part of The Refashioners 2015 Community Challenge. So grab a shirt and get refashioning! You have until Sunday 27th Sept to enter! Stay tuned for more inspiration throughout August!