Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Shirts I Made


I've been trying to use my sewing machine more lately.  I also don't exactly have any spare cash with which to buy new clothes. So, I've been making myself/altering clothes to fit me, and I've found that I like them better than anything I could buy in a store (or, at least, anything I could afford in a store)

 Below is a shirt I made from an old silk skirt I bought at a thrift store.  The skirt looked like something a grade school teacher would wear circa 1984--a mid calf length, high waisted, pencil skirt.  Not the sexy secretary kind--the shapeless 80's kind.  There was a lot of fabric, but it was sewn in panels, so I had seams that I couldn't avoid; instead of trying to hide them, I sewed up the sides and highlighted them in contrasting thread.  I also put some small darts in the shoulders.  This pattern was easy since it doesn't actually have sleeves.





And the next shirt may be my favorite that I own right now.  We got this beautiful silk at a clearance sale, and I found the crochet trim in my mom's stash when I was visiting.  I found this shirt online, and fell in love.  I used the same base pattern as the shirt above, and gave myself a little bit less room in the shoulders.  For the front piece, I just cut up the center, hemmed the sides and topstiched the trim.  I love it and have to restrain myself from wearing it every single day.



The pattern for these shirts was pretty easy to make; I had a shirt that was a simple front and back only, no separate sleeves.  All I did was fold it in half and trace the shape of both the front and the back pieces.  I added in seam allowance and hem room--and now I have a shirt pattern that I can use over and over. (that's what is in the photo up top.  I didn't have any paper large enough so I used some muslin I had laying around)

No comments:

Post a Comment