I absolutely fell in love with this shirt from a store that Kevin and I like to browse, but really couldn't justify the cost for such a "trendy" purchase. Or justify the cost in general since it's way more than I spend on clothes, like, ever. So, as usual, I started to browse for nice flowy, Hawaiian print shirts in lovely colors on my regular thrift store circuit, preferably in an all natural fiber like cotton or silk. I wasn't having a ton of luck when it dawned on me that there is typically no shortage of such thinks in the men's shirt department. Obnoxious Hawaiian print shirts are practically a staple for any daddy-o (including my own if I do recall correctly). I had the idea to look for one in a particularly suitable print and do a little switch-a-roo. In no time at all I had found a peach of a silk shirt in an extra-large size with plenty of fabric to mess around with. I'm not a great seamstress, but it was a pretty small investment so I figured why not. Here's a before shot:
The general idea was to take the back of the shirt and turn it into the front, and then use the two front pieces to make up the new back. I wanted it to be sort of loose with a flattering neckline and sleeves. All in all I'm very happy with how it turned out, although I'll admit I bumbled through it a bit. Therefore, although I'm going to list my steps below, I'd advise thinking of this more as a general idea-generating guide and less of a tutorial. Alrighty, here goes.
I started out by roughly deconstructing it. I knew I wasn't going to be super tight on fabric, so I simply cut the side seams and arm seams rather than taking extra time with a seam ripper. I also cut off and discarded the back yoke section and the collar. I was then left with just the large back piece, right front, left front, and two sleeves. I left the bottom hems and sleeve hems intact so that they could still function as the hems. Less sewing for me = good.
Then I ironed everything and laid out the back piece. I took a good fitting shirt of the desired shape from my closet and laid it out on top, matching up the bottom hem. I carefully traced around it with a washable fabric marker on the wrong side leaving about a 1/2 inch seam allowance. At this point I just skipped the arm hole part and only traced the side seams and top shoulder seams.
Then I cut out the pattern based on my tracing lines. To make sure things were symmetrical I folded the shirt in half and evened out the side seams. Then I sort of eyeballed and freehanded the armhole opening while it was still folded in half, so that I did both armholes at once.
Next up was the neckline. I laid the guide-shirt out again and traced as best I could. Then, I cut out the using the traced line, folded in half, and symmetrified it just like the body. My next step was to use a seam allowance tool to measure one inch all the way around the neckline. This was so I could cut slits a little bit less than one inch all the way around for the curved hem. After the slits were cut (you can barely seem them in the picture), I ironed around the curve at the one inch mark then sewed a simple straight stitch for the hem.
With the front of the shirt basically complete, it was time to move onto the two back pieces. I started by removing the button band parts from both sides then laying them out over the new front piece. I lined things up so that the bottom hems were flush and so that there was enough fabric to totally cover the front piece.
Then, I cut around the sides to match the front and was then left with these two pieces. At this point the bottom edges were finished, and the cuts were made for the outside seams and arm holes.
Next I had to figure out how to make the two pieces symmetrical with a seam right down the middle of the back, while still keeping the whole thing the same size as the front piece. So, I laid out the front piece with the two backs on top of it flush to the sides and bottom. Then, I measured the half way point and added one inch on each side for a wide seam allowance. Then I traced that one-inch-on-each-side-of-middle line directly onto the fabric, unstacked everything, and cut along that line. To finish, I sewed up the middle line and had my two back pieces into one. The final step was to cut the neck hem by sort of free-handing the curve to be about an inch and a half higher than the front.
For the sleeves, I again wanted to use the existing hem for the end of the sleeve. So, I basically took the detached sleeve tube and laid it out under my guide shirt sleeve to get an idea of how long it should be and marked that approximate spot. Then I laid the sleeve tube out under the new shirt by the sleeve hole so that the armpit matched up with the place I had marked. Next I used the rotary cutter to freehand a curve the would fit into the sleeve opening.
I had thought the sleeve might need a little adjustment to fit together perfectly, but it turned out great the first time. I fit the sleeve into the sleeve pocket right-sides-facing and pinned all along the opening. Then it was a quick run through the sewing machine to attach the sleeve and I was done!
I did make a really stupid mistake when cutting the sleeves that I couldn't undo. When I cut them, I put the original underarm seam up towards the shoulder, rather than at the underarm. So, the sleeve seams sits on my shoulder rather than under the arm. I was pretty bummed with I realized my mistake, but in the end it gave the sleeves a sort of dolmon-esque quality and looks pretty good.
Here's the final product!
Very nice! And much more thrifty!
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