Collared Shirt Upcycle

I have too many pictures.

We had to change the way we stored them all last year about this time, and that's part of the reason I haven't been posting as many pictures during this last year.  I finally took the initiative to go back through all my pictures from the last year and get the ones that I would like to remember so that I can put them here.  Hopefully they'll all make it and I'll be able to remember what was going on at the time...  Stay tuned for some picture-heavy posts.

These next pics feel like a life-time ago (sigh, I miss our turquoise bathroom...).  It's funny to see me with hair so straight and short.

Anyway, my mother-in-law knows I like to tinker with clothes, and gave me some quality collared shirts from someone's wardrobe.

 It's just a thin black plaid, if you can't tell.  Nothing special about it.  Just a collared, button-down shirt.

 This is by no means a well-done tutorial.  I never really know what I'm doing, so I don't think to photograph every step since I'm not sure if it will be a good one :)  I forgot to photograph the next few steps but I just put it on inside-out and put pins in my sides to give the body more shape and show off my waist better (which I super need to off-set my super-flat chest).

Then I cut off the collar and cut off the sleeves just above the shoulder seam.

collar cut about 1/2" above the second button

 Then I shortened the sleeves to be short (it's been awhile, but I'm pretty sure I tried to copy another shirt with sleeves I liked.  In retrospect, it would be easier not to cut them off and sew them back on, I would just shorten them since this shirt isn't THAT big on me.  You only want to do this if the shoulder seams are off your shoulder).  Then I sewed the sleeves back on from armpit to armpit (going over the shoulder) and then ran a seam where the pins were at my sides all the way to the sleeves.  I never even trimmed the excess off, so I could adjust it later if I needed to.  (though I never did.)  I used the extra fabric from the sleeves to cut strips about 1.5" wide, pressed in half and then, well, look at the pic...  (Can you tell I've never taken a real sewing class? I don't know any fancy names for anything.  Sorry!)

 I pinned it to the neck and sleeves.

 Sewed the border on the neck and sleeves.  Note that I cannot unbutton the shirt all the way anymore.  I unbutton all the others when I put it on and slip it over my head.  It works fine, but this is no longer able to be put on like a traditional button-down.  After sewing on the embellishment, I pressed it and top-stitched to get it to lay right.

 The bow was an after-thought.  I took one of the cuffs from the sleeve and tied a knot in the middle.  If you look closely, you can see the button-hold on the left side of it.

 ta-da!

 The bow is just safety pinned on in this shot, because I wasn't sure if I'd still like it and if it would wash well.  I take it off when I wash the shirt.

I hate being in photos alone...

I'm actually wearing this shirt right now with a mustard cardi and different belt.  It's one of my favorites because it's long and hides my kangaroo pouch pretty well :)