There is a box
In every crafter’s home

That is filled with old unfinished projects
And stuff you thrifted in the hopes of upcycling.

That becomes abandoned
That becomes forgotten

Well this is the series that tackles that
forgotten box

This is The Style Pile!

This is an item that’s only been in the
Style Pile box for a couple of weeks now – it

is a size medium men’s shirt.

Luci recently took a load of his shirts to
the thrift store, but me, being the hoarder

that I am, saved the ones with nice fabrics
to turn into cute clothes for myself!

So I wanted to turn this gingham shirt into
a two-piece skirt and crop-top set.

First, I laid the shirt down on to my cutting
mat and I removed the sleeves.

And I'm going to save that sleeve fabric for
later!

Next, I cut this now-sleeveless shirt in half
like this.

The bottom half is going to be turned into
a skirt!

So we will focus on the skirt first.

What I wanted to do first was to make the
skirt fit me properly.

So I turned it inside-out, leaving it buttoned-up
for now, and – oh yeah!

There’s a spare button here!

I took that off first because the button will
come in handy later!

Anyway, then I took my waist measurement just
above my belly button.

This is 33 inches.

I halved this waist measurement, giving me
16.5 inches, and then lined my tape measure

up with my skirt, so that the 16.5 inches
is exactly in the middle of the skirt.

Then I drew 2 slightly curved lines extending
out from these two points, down to the folded

edges of the fabric just below the point where
my hips start.

Then, I sewed two lines across here, using
my serger to finish off the seams, although

you can definitely just use a straight stitch,
and finish off the seams anyway you like.

Now remember the sleeves that I cut off before?

I’m going to use them to make a waistband.

First I cut the cuffs off the sleeves.

Then, I laid the sleeves out in a long straight
line, like this, matching up the checkers

between both of the sleeves.

What I’m going to do next is to cut out
a long rectangle from these pieces.

The rectangle’s length is the waist measurement
I took before plus 2 and a half inches (making

it 35.5 inches long) and about 5 inches wide.

Now because there were two sleeves the rectangle
is in two pieces, so I sewed it together into

one rectangle by placing these two pieces
right-sides together and then sewing along

this edge with a half-inch seam allowance.

Now, with this one long rectangle (which has
the dimensions 35 by 5 inches due to that

new seam), I folded it in half lengthways
like this, and I sewed down this edge, giving

me a tube, which I turned inside out quickly
using a bodkin (and I showed you all how to

use a bodkin in my last video – seriously
these things are amazing and make turning

tubes about one million times easier).

Next, I ironed the waistband, unbuttoned and
laid flat the now fitted-skirt, and then I

placed the waistband down onto the waistline
of the skirt, right-sides together, and I

sewed it onto the skirt like this.

The waistband ends extend a little bit further
than the edges of the skirt, so to finish

them off I folded them over once, then twice,
so that the edge is in line with the rest

of the skirt, and then I sewed over the top
to hold it in place.

The next thing I had to do was to add extra
buttons up the top and bottom of the skirt.

So I got one of the buttons from that tag
from before, I put it down on the waistband,

lining it up with the other buttons, and then
I hand-sewed it on using a needle and thread.

The other button, I cut off one of the sleeve
cuffs, and I attached that down at the bottom

of the skirt.

To make button holes for these buttons, first
I figured out where the button hole would

go, so, directly on top of the button when
it’s closed and also in line with the other

button holes.

Then, I used my buttonhole foot on my sewing
machine – as you can see here, the machine’s

feed dogs are getting a little bit stuck so
I'm kind of pulling it through with my hand

– if your machine is healthy, that shouldn't
happen!

I don't know why it's happening, but anyway,
I still managed to make a buttonhole and it

looks like this – which I then opened up
using a small, sharp pair of scissors.

So the skirt is now done, the other half of
the shirt I’m turning into a cute crop top

with ties!

I unbuttoned the top and I laid it out flat,
and then I cut straight up both the side seams

and the shoulder seams – but I made sure
not to cut through the collar.

This gives me separate front and back pieces
to work with.

First, I decided to cut straight down the
front here – and then I was like, why did

I do that, that’s not anything…

I’ve ruined my shirt now… so in an attempt
to fix it, I sewed the cut-off pieces back

on.

So don't follow that part if you're trying
to follow this tutorial.

OKAY so the ACTUAL thing that I wanted to
do, to make the top fit me properly, is to

lay the front pieces out flat like this, and
then I grabbed a fitted top – well, actually

this is a dress but I’m just going to be
using the top part of the dress – I folded

the top of the dress in half with the FRONT
facing out, and I’m going to use just the

armholes and the sides of this fitted top,
NOT the neckline, as a guide to make new armholes

and new sides on this gingham top.

So, using this top as a guide, I’m going
to cut the gingham fabric here and here.

I’m adding a whole extra inch to the seam
allowance around the armholes because I want

to do a rolled hem, and I wanted to make the
gingham shirt a little bit looser fitting

than this fitted demin top.

I’m also angling those side lines a bit
further out like THIS because I don’t want

the top to be as fitted at the waist as the
denim one is.

Then, I folded this half of the front onto
the other half, using it as a template to

cut out the other half, so that the two front
pieces will be identical to each other, just

mirrored!

I did the same thing for the back of the top,
laying the denim dress down on top of it so

the back of the dress is facing up, and then
I used the armholes and the sides - not the

neckline - to make imaginary cutting lines
around the top like this, again leaving one

extra one inch of seam allowance around the
armholes and extra room at the sides, making

it kind of flare out at the bottom, which
I then cut out using my rotary cutter.

Next, I placed the front pieces down on top
of the back piece, making sure it was right-sides

together, and I sewed it back up at the shoulders.

And then, once the shoulders were sewn, I
matched up the sides of the front and the

back pieces and then I made new side seams
by sewing them together like this.

Then to finish off the armholes, I hemmed
the raw edges of the fabric.

I did this by turning the top inside-out,
and then folding the fabric at the armhole

down like this.

Where the fabric was curved around the armhole,
I made little slits in the fabric to make

this hemming easier.

And then I hemmed all the way around the armholes.

When I was done that, I folded the hem over
again to create a clean rolled hem.

Lastly, I’m going to use these pieces of
the sleeves that I still had leftover to make

some ties at the front of the top.

I laid each of these pieces underneath the
front part of the top, matching the end up

with the side seams, and then I cut this bit
of fabric so it tapered off towards the bottom

edge of the top to create a continuous line
between the ties and the top.

I left the fabric thicker in the middle of
the tie here, instead of making it a straight

rectangle, so that I’ll have a bit more
coverage at the front of the top – the idea

is to make the front of the top have a slightly
curved hem – you’ll see what I mean soon!

I then flipped this piece over, placing it
right-sides together with the front of the

top’s bottom edge, and I sewed it on like
this.

I repeated this for the other side…

And now I have these two ties at the front
of my top.

The very last step was to serge all around
the raw edges, using my overlocker here, and

then I folded these edges up inside the top
about half an inch and I used a straight stitch

to make a hem.

And with that, I was done!

So here’s the before and afters!

[Music Plays]

I think this new outfit has a very cute, flirty,
summery vibe – and it’s absolutely perfect

for the end of summer here in Sydney.

I also think that it has quite a vintage-feel
and looks pretty cute when paired with red

lipstick and some dramatic cat-eye eyeliner!

I hope that you liked this episode of the
Style Pile and that it helps give you all

some inspiration in upcycling clothes for
yourself, and tackling your own box of unfinished

sewing projects!

Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you all
next time!

Bye!

Thank you to all of my supporters on Patreon
for making these video possible!

To become my Patreon supporter, go to patreon.com/annikavictoria.