Refashion

For several years now, I have been wanting to refashion one of my husband's shirts into a dress for me. I have a small pile of his shirts that have either shrunk in the wash or that never fit him well to begin with, slowly accumulating in India and the US. Since storage space is notably scarce in our rented Parisian apartment, there really is no room for piles of anything. So I finally gave it a go, taking inspiration from Antoinette and her clever refashions.

I was working with a large-tall Eddie Bauer shirt, so I had quite a bit of fabric to work with. I started with ripping out the collar and the shirt pocket. I initially wanted to keep the collar stand but it was much too large, and it had to go. After I cut along the side seams on the body and sleeves, I converted the box pleat on the shirt back to gathers.

I used a self-drafted pattern to cut out the shirt fronts and back, and the sleeves. The sleeves are my favourite part!

I also sewed the original pocket back on the right front of the dress.

I added small gathers to the shoulders, which you can't see very well in these photos, and I left the back of the dress longer than the front (inspired by Wiksten's Lissa dress).

I finished the entire dress with french seams, and I had enough fabric left over to make bias tape, which I used to finish the sleeves and neck. I wore it the day to wander around Paris!

Thanks to my husband for taking all the photos of me in my new, refashioned dress.