DIY Refashion: Men's Shirt to Peplum Dress

 Hey guys! Remember this big old ugly shirt? A week or so before Christmas I set to work chopping this shirt up and designing a snazzy peplum dress out of it. I wore it on Christmas Eve and got asked a few times where I bought the dress! I consider that a successful refashion.

#betterthanstorebought #booyahmozzerellasticks #awyeah #hashtag

Ahem. Enough of that. Let's talk about the dress. I started by properly dissecting the men's shirt and gathering some matching thread and some extra fabric in the event that I needed to add more.

 While I do not have any good pictures from the process, you will have to make do with my turn of phrase and poetic descriptions.

I started by drafting up what I wanted in the dress. It had to feature a princess-seamed bodice. The lines are flattering to every body type, and will hopefully suit me for at least another month or so of Baby Z's growth. Hehe!!

To achieve a well fitting bodice, I was lucky enough to have a princess-seamed dress that fit me quite well. I used that dress as a basis for designing mine. I added a little wiggle room in the bust area (since pregnancy has already left me floundering for tops that fit in that realm) as well as the waist. After drawing up the pattern on cardstock (and making sure to add a seam allowance) and picking which pieces of the shirt would become which parts of the bodice, I set to work cutting.

 After piecing the bodice together with pins, I was shocked and concerned to discover that the bodice was FAR too tight. So, without a moment to lose, I drafted a side panel. Having such limited fabric from the men's shirt, I had to use some sections from a pair of teal old lady trousers I scored a year ago. I also decided to use the teal pants to assemble the peplum ruffles as well so that the side panels did not look out of place.

After the bodice was pieced and sewn, I quickly trimmed up the skirt and edged the peplums. Then, after attaching the skirt to the bodice, all I had to do was finish the neckline and sleeves and WHAMO. One bootiful dress.

Since this dress will hopefully be able to be worn for another month or two of this pregnancy, it is a bit billowy. I pair it with a brown belt to keep some of the girth in check. You can hardly tell that it has got extra belly room!! The shoes are a Goodwill score from a few weeks before Christmas. $3!! Holy schmowzow!! And they are practically new. I love me some fun flats.

There you go friends!! Have you done any spiffy refashions lately??

-Carolyn
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