RE-FASHION: Tropical print shirt

Hello Internet!

Today the post is about one of my favorite things to work with: Re-fashion.

Thrift-transformations are one of the main reasons I learned how to sew. My mom never had a lot of time to help me changing the pieces so eventually I started refashioning the clothes myself, of course many nice old pieces were destroyed in the way but now I'm proud to say I'm very good at it.

The tropical print is a trend this summer, and I just love colorful clothes. When I saw this picture below I could hear my mom's voice in my head saying: "OMG! When I was your age that was exactly what I used to wear". 

Tropical print inspiration

Inspired by my mom's saying that fashion always come back when I landed my eyes on this fruit print shirt I couldn't help but bring it straight home.

Here in Europe you can find so many really cool stuff in the tweedehand winkel (second hand shop in Dutch), and every now and then I pop in to see what new I can find.

>>Click on read more for the full tutorial:

This is my thrift find:

I call it "Granny on vacation"

NOTE: First thing to do after arriving home from a happy day of second hand shopping is throw everything in the washing machine for a good wash. Only then I try it out and go work with it, you never know...

I always like to keep as much of the original piece as possible, sometimes if you are gonna do too many changes you might end up destroying your work (by my own experience).

I don't need many changes on my shirt, I like the neckline and won't change anything on its basic form. The only thing I decided to do it adjust the sleeves and make it a little more fitted on the sides

To the re-fashion:

The only Materials you will need are:

-Your soon to be fabulous shirt

-Sewing tools 

(scissors, chalk, sewing machine)

-One of your own shirts for measuring

(choose something with a similar look/cut you wanna achieve on your new shirt)

Step 1: Shoulder pads, no need to say they barely made the front door before being dramatically amputated from the shirt. :)

Step 2: Remove your sleeves. 

There is no need for time consuming seam ripping, if you do it carefully. 

Step 3: Grab the sleeveless bodice and use your guide shirt to measure how much to take in on the sides

NOTE: As soon as you know how much to take in on the sides mark the same measurament on your sleeves.

Step 4: Sew along the new marks.

Do not cut any extra fabric off yet. 

Step 5: Try it on. If your shirt still ins't perfect go back to the machine, re-sew it until you are satisfied with your work.

Here I decided to shorten the bottom of the shirt

Step 6: Cut off any excess fabric of body and sleeves.

If your fabric frays too easily you can run a zigzag stitch over the seams raw edges.

Step 7: Pin the sleeves to the armhole and sew all around it

Step 8: Hem the bottom.
NOTE: You can make any hem you like. I went for a simple hem but it looked a little too boring. So I grabed the fabric I had cutt off before and sewn it all the way around like a giant bias tape.

Don't mind that pleat, it happened and looks fabulous.

And you are done! 

This is the final result:

As you can see with so little changes my shirt was transformed. That "granny on vacation" look is gone. Now it looks fabulous.
I did the same process with a red shirt. She looks just really cute, I really love how the sleeves turned out too.

So what do you think?
Leave a comment below with any comments and questions.

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Tchau, tchau