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.