Friday, February 8, 2013

Week 5: Men's Dress Shirt Refashion

This week our challenge was to take a men's button up shirt and turn it into something fabulous for a child and our designers did a fantastic job!  Look through their designs and then head over to the side bar to vote for your favorite.
 
 
La Inglesita---Like for Like
I´ve made my fair share of Shirt Recycling already and everytime I work with old shirts I end up making new shirts. I guess it´s because the fabric is so soft and I like shirt making so much that, even if I make a dress, I´ll always see a shirt in a shirt. I admit my heart beeps faster when my shears come close beautiful flat felled seams.
So I´ve made a shirt from two old coordinated blue shirts. Risky, huh?
But I made an interesting discovery this week: Most of my husband´s and father´s shirts have very similar placket sizes and buttonholes placed at exactly the same distance. This incredible fact gave me the idea to mix the right front from one shirt and the left from another. No need to change buttons! I played with mismatched sleeves too and made the left from the stripy shirt and the right from the plain one.  I also kept many of the features that make a shirt a shirt:
- Intact placket and buttons. For the new buttons I used red thread, three in total.
- Sleeve plackets. I cut out the cuffs and added bias binding ties in contrasting fabric on each sleeve. I love how each placket is different.
- I left the pocket on the stripes side. I also loved how the pocket is sewn into the armhole. I was unable to rip it off. The stripes were so perfectly matched!
- Can you see what I did with the point of one collar?
The pattern is a gazpacho between Oliver and S Sailboat top and a self drafted block pattern.
As always, enjoy your vote!
See you soon at la inglesita
María

 
Max California---Wanderlust
When the sun is setting and sending the last rays of warm sunshine across the fields, two little girls are still playing. Their home is where the heart is, where their mummy is with her arms open wide to hold them and whisper them stories of far away places and magical people while daddy plays his guitar. They are the daughters of wanderlust. Using one men's shirt, I first made a little dress for Edison from the bottom of the men's shirt. I used the placket as the straps at the front, the buttons on one side and the buttonholes on the other. They button together at the back and form a Y shape. I added piping between the bodice and the skirt, the skirt is the full bottom of the shirt, taking it in just a tiny bit at the back. It keeps the shirt's original curved hem. The back is shirred at the waist, making it easy on & off and also cute! The bodice was cut on the cross-grain of the shirt, making the checks go in a different direction to the rest of the dress and the lining is some pretty orange and purple lotus blossom cotton. I paired the dress with a little pair of bloomers made in the lotus blossom fabric. They have a shirred waist, orange bias-binding {I made the bias-binding and the piping all myself!} around the legs and are lined with the sleeves of the men's shirt. I made it so the bloomers are reversible! Amelia's little outfit used the top part of the men's shirt, utilising the collar and the top of the placket. I made bieas-binding from the lotus blossom fabric and bound the armholes. I added piping between the top of the shirt and the little peplum skirt. I switched out the buttons on both outfits from the shirt buttons to some more colour-popping purple buttons. Amelia's shorts are self-drafted, with front pockets and back welt pockets bound in the lotus blossom cotton. They have a flat front and elasticated back. I added some little tabs from the shirt scraps to the pocket and the four buttons on the shorts are the men's shirt buttons.
The moccasins are made from my old fake-suede curtains and lined in felt. I used the Charlie boots pattern for Edison's Moc boots and added the fringing and a little fold over band at the top. For Amelia's moccasin slippers I used the Micky Moccasin pattern and added the fringe around the sides and back. Their little headbands are made using vanilla-coloured lingerie elastic. Edison's I twisted strips of fabric scraps and glued them to felt, gluing it to the headband. Amelia's used an old beaded and sequined scrap I have been hoarding forever, stitched onto a doily. Make sure you click through to my blog for more photos!

 
 
CathGrace---Dress Blues

For my Men's Shirt Week outfit, I was a little bit stumped at first; you see here in S.Korea, there aren't really thrift stores in the same way there are in the states, and although on base there is a thrift shop, it is rather small (there were less than 5 men's shirts on the rack) EXCEPT in their uniform section. There are a TON of Blues shirts in the thrift shop (blues are sort of the business suits of the USAF) so I had a ton of pale blue shirts to select from, and suddenly the idea for my look formed. (I'm calling it "Dress Blues" because I was feeling particularly punny) and I hope you can still see all the details through the questionable pictures! (I am afraid I didn't get the best pictures of this outfit because it has been FREEZING here to the point the air base has closed all the roads to driving several times due to ice, and I haven't been able to get out anywhere for a pretty photo shoot with lots of light!)  
Since we were allowed to use more than just one shirt in the challenge, I actually used 7 shirts. I picked apart every seam, of all the shirts, which was insane! I used 6 of the shirt backs to make up the skirt, and the 7th to make the back 2 pieces of the fully lined bodice. The front is made up of several of the fronts, and so on throughout the dress. Although I chose to make this dress a shirt dress, I didn't use the original collar or cuffs from the blue's shirts, as they were much to big for Emmie, instead I made a custom double collar, and double cuffs (actually they aren't just doubled, they fold back over themselves too.) What I DID use from the original shirts was the shoulder passants. (the little shoulder tabs) There are 14 of them total between the 7 shirts, and they were originally designed to hold your rank on your blues shirt. I added the 14 tabs around the waist at the same time I sewed the skirt on, and then I added the original shirt buttons to the bodice and buttoned the passants onto them. Next I made strips of fabric, that I wove in and out to make wide a basket woven belt. The dress is buttoned at the neck, and there is a hidden side zip for getting in and out of the dress.
In the spirit of upcycling, I made Emmie a cardigan out of a sweater I have had for ages that I didn't love. (it was too big for me.) I cut a whole new body, using the hem ribbing at the bottom and I serged the original neck trim back onto the cardigan, along with the newly cut sleeves. Since I added a split to the front of the sweater, I trimmed the inside edge with the same knit I used for the leggings, and added large navy, fabric covered snaps to close the cardigan. Down the front of the cardigan I added bunches of 3 jewels over each of the snaps. Because of the fold back cuff, she can button the loop over the cardigan, so you still get the pop of light blue at her wrists. (The dress took HOURS, including replacing a broken zip last second, and of course the 2 hour cardigan is Emmie's favorite part of the outfit.) The leggings are just simple with a yoga pant waist, done in a whimsical print (there are kitties driving cars, birds, and bunnys etc.) and they are so she can stay modest and comfortable while she plays. I hope you like my look, as I would LOVE your vote, and LOVE to show you my signature look! (for more pictures and in-depth descriptions, please hop on over to cathgrace.)    
 
 
 
Winter W3---Mo-Squish-Le

 (*You're just going to have to come over to my blog for a full explanation of the name!!!)

REFASHION WEEK!!!!  To say that from the moment I learned what the challenges would be this was the one I was the MOST excited about would be an understatement.  Most of what I sew is a refashion of one kind or another, quite often I use cast offs simply as yardage; but I love the fun of incorporating existing elements from original garments in fun or unexpected ways.  This outfit, along with 'Elephant Shoes', were the only two I had completely drawn and planned before the competition began that came into fruition the way I planned - well mostly.  You see this week has been anything but what I planned.  It started with A getting the stomach bug on the way to church on Sunday, followed by baby girl getting her first tooth knocked out and having her first trip to the ER on Monday night, continued with the entire house (save my husband - THANK GOD!) getting a worse version of the stomach bug on Tuesday that is still attacking all of us.  Which left me semi mobile on Wednesday scrambling to finish my cute little ensemble that sat wondering if it would see the light of day; and taking pictures early Thursday morning only a few hours after baby girl's last bout of tossing her milk and cheerios.  But here they are - both baby girl, and outfit - maybe missing a tiny piece of what they had/had planned, but perfect just the way they are.


I went with a traditional men's white dress shirt for the top and this great cozy flannel shirt for the shorts and lining of the boots.  I've been wanting to create a bib front top with pin tucks since November.  My husband encouraged me to include the pocket when I was second guessing myself, so it was carefully removed from the original and attached to the new front.  The button hole side of the front placket became the perfect ribbon detail edge after new button holes were added to increase the amount of ribbon weaving.  And the detailing on the sleeves is the original cuff placket, upside down - maybe my favorite detail of the entire shirt.  The shorts and boots  use warm soft flannel.  The shorts feature box pleated front and pockets with ribbon detail and sweet silver buttons.



Come over to MY BLOG to see more pictures and read all the details!!!!

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23 comments :

  1. It's so weird seeing only four of us now! Great job ladies, I plan on staying far away from the polls this weekend. I don't think my nerves can take it!

    Love you loads!

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  2. Huge Hugs to all! Great jobs all the way around as always!!! The sew along-ers had some phenomenal creativity as well this week - I love seeing all the creativity come to life.

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  3. My 3 favourite designers are still competing! Gosh it is getting hard for me to choose...

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  4. So hard to choose this week. Great job everyone!

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  5. i love all that orange...and with two little ones:) again great job girls!

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  6. María, es una chulada de Upcycling! Qué gran idea, me la apunto para la versión chico.

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  7. Great job everyone!! really, this season has been full of so much awesome-ness but my girl Max really blew me away this week! Two amazing outfits and such color! fun!

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  8. Really great stuff this week! For some reason Max's pictures never load on my computer, they do on my Ipad and when I go to her site but never the Project Run and Play site. Am I the only one....it is possible I have strange computers!

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  9. Wow, I really cannot pick! Beautiful work, everyone!

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  10. Ole , Ole y Ole por la inglesita !

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  11. Ole , Ole y Ole por la inglesita !

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  12. Ole , Ole y Ole por la inglesita !

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  13. la mejor lo siento por las demas pero sin duda es LA INGLESITA !!!! a por ellos oe a por ellos oe a por ellos oe a por ellos oe oe .

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  14. for some reason, when I linked to the page, it said I had already voted and I hadn't. So my vote goes to Winter W3. Hope no one wins or looses by one vote!!!

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  15. Sin dudarlo ni un momento La Inglesita

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  16. IMPRESIONANTE! CREO QUE ME QUEDO CON LA CAMISA DE LA INGLESITA, ES EL ESPÍRITU DEL RECICLAJE, SEGUNDA VIDA DE PRIMERA CALIDAD Y DISEÑO.

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  17. That a lovely dress! I love your refashion of that shirt, Both babies are so cute.
    integrated receivables management

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