mama’s first re-fashion (and more shorts)

refashioning is not something i’ve gotten into. there are lovely peeps out there who do it almost exclusively—and i think they are amazing!—but i just haven’t gone there myself. however, in an effort to use some of my old clothes that i no longer wear but just can’t give away, i decided to give it a try. and ya know… it wasn’t half bad!

i’ve had this button up shirt since college, and i loved it and wore it a lot. nowadays the fit bothered me: sleeves too wide, main body too wide, shirt too short… hasn’t been worn in years. so i cut it up, made it small and gave it to anastasia. she’s very much not a girly girl so it was a risk giving her a ruffled collar, but it’s small and subtle enough that she’s okay with it.

i had plenty of fabric to work with, so i cut the collar stand on the bias to break up the plaid a bit. for the ruffle, i went with a scant 2:1 ratio and used my serger to finish the upper edge. even though i had plenty of fabric, i made the inner collar stand out of a contrast fabric that just happened to go well with the plaid. i really like this feature on shirts, though i’ve never used it for myself. that may change.

and hey, check out those cute shorts! i used mccalls 6391 again with all the same pattern mods as before. the fabric is a lightweight denim (6-6.5 oz) that was leftover from an older project. actually, this is the second thing i’ve made with the leftovers now that i think of it… i wanted to keep a trouser look so i used black topstitching thread, but to keep it casual i simply hemmed the legs and rolled them up twice, strategically tacking the side seams so they stay put. as you can see, in a size 7 they’re quite roomy. however i expect that she’ll get two summers out of these—our summers are fairly short so that’s a good thing. i also put an adjustable waist on the inside so she wouldn’t have to bother with a belt.

as i constructed the shorts i took many pictures of my fly construction method, but writing up a good tutorial is very time consuming. i should have it up in a day or two (or four…) so watch this space!

—lisa g.