Men's Shirt to Cute Skirt!

I was at a thrift store near my house the other day, and in my searchings I found three men's dress shirts that I wanted to cut up and redesign.

Here is the first shirt that I decided to cut up!  Just a plain ol' boring, large light blue dress shirt.

If you've watched Glee, then you know that Rachel Berry is always wearing these super cute button front skirts.  I love the look!  That's where the inspiration came from.

In one of my Youtube crafting tutorial searches I came across this great tutorial to draft your own skirt pattern. The best part of all, is that I just so happen to be the exact same size that she made her skirt, so it was pretty easy since I didn't have to do any calculations.

Here it is!  If you follow the directions exactly in the video you shouldn't have a problem!

I cut off the arms, and then cut off the sides so I would have a separate front piece and a separate back piece

My handy dandy pattern holder---- a rock!

I left the pieces longer than the pattern because I wasn't sure how long I wanted it until I tried it on.

Now for the front.  I laid this out with the fabric open because of the buttons.  I wanted to make sure it was centred.

I transferred the dart markings and then realized the pocket was in the way, so I had to adjust the front darts to closer to the centre line.

The darts.... and then I did exactly the same on the back piece.

Zig zag stitch to attach the elastic waistband

I cut the top of the skirt with pinking shears so the edge wouldn't fray.

I attached a snap at the top on the elastic waist band.

Here's a close up!

I love how it turned out!  I ended up cutting off quite a bit of the length once I tried it on after I had sewn it together.  For the hem I just folded the edge under a 1/4inch and then another 1/4inch.  I used a zigzag stitch with turquoise thread, just for some fun!

In the video it shows that you would be inserting a zipper.  If this were the case you would have to cut the back piece not on the fold but in two separate pieces.  Since I have buttons at the front, I didn't need a zipper.  By not putting the zipper in the back it will have slightly altered the size, making it a little looser (but barely).

It was very neat to draw my own pattern!  Now that I have the basic skirt pattern I can alter it to make all kinds of skirts, as well as dresses!

Happy Sewing!
~Becca