Get This Tutorial As a PDF
This tutorial has been updated, and is now available as a full step-by-step with photos in my new book 7 DIY Men’s Shirt Makeovers, part of the DIY Men’s Shirt Makeovers System.
You Need:
1 man’s button-down shirt (sized larger than you are; doesn’t matter what size) / thread matching topstitching in shirt
Tools:
fabric scissors / seam ripper / pins / marking chalk / sewing machine / needle for wovens / iron and ironing board / hand-sewing needle (optional)
How To:
Prep Time:
1. Put shirt on. Button 3rd and fourth buttons on shirt. Place one hand underneath your armpit; mark where armscye depth should be on the front of your shirt, as close to the side seam as possible. (I used a pin.) Take off the shirt and also mark the armscye depth for the other arm.
2. Lay your shirt on a flat surface and cut off the sleeves. Cut off the cuffs and discard; slit the sleeves down their side seams (as close to the seams as possible without going through any lapped seam detail). Remove the pocket with a seam ripper and discard.
3. Cut off the center button placard and buttonhole placard, below the fourth button, leaving enough allowance at the sides of each placard to fold under about 1/4″. (If your placard is finished and bound, you won’t need the folding allowance, but mine wasn’t, so I have the extra step of finishing it below.) Cut the collar from the front of the shirt (as close to the collar band as possible without going through it), and cut about 1″ along the bottom line of collar band into the back of the shirt. (You won’t remove the collar entirely from the back of the shirt; you’ll just be freeing it from the front of the shirt. We want that sucker still attached at the back!!)
4. Turn shirt inside out and button remaining buttons on the shirt.
Sew Front Center Seam
5. Sew front together, down buttoned placard that’s still attached to the shirt, so you only have a single center front seam.
6. Trim seam and buttoned placard off on the inside.
Adjust Fit
7. Take shirt off and lay it flat. Pin down sides, straight down from the pins you added at the armscye depth.
8. Turn shirt right-side-out and try it on. Adjust pins as necessary for a more tapered fit at the waist, and a freer fit at the hip. Make sure the armscye depth is still correct, and that you can get the shirt over your head.
9. Take shirt off, turn inside out, and trace a “best-fit” line between your pins at the sides. Remove pins. Add 1″ to the outside of the lines, and retrace the shape of the sides.
10. Cut shirt front from shirt back at the sides, cutting along the outside lines you drew in the previous step.
11. Trace shirt front onto shirt back.Draw lines on back about 3/8″ to the inside of the lines you just draw. Cut shirt back on these lines.
12. Pin shirt front to shirt back. (Your shirt front should now be about 3/4″ larger than the back.)
Sew the Sides
14. Iron shirt and sleeves flat, paying special attention to the button placard still attached to the collar.
If your button placard is not finished on one side, now is the time to fold the unfinished side under, and topstitch so that both sides are finished.
Make the Ruffles
15. Lay your sleeves flat and cut two pieces from the sleeves, next to the angled sleeve seams. (These pieces will be your Angled Ruffles.) Cut on the grain, cutting a piece about 1.5″ wide at its smaller end and 5.5″ wide at the widest end. Trim any raw edges near the bound edge off.
16. Cut 2 long rectangles from each sleeve about 3″ wide by the length of your sleeve. Square off the ends. These pieces will be your Long Ruffles.
17. Sew 2 long rectangles together, short end to short end. Repeat for the other 2 pieces.
18. Fold over the long edge of one of the pieces from the previous step about 1/4″; sew a scant 1/16″ from the edge. Trim the raw edge next to your line of stitching. Fold over the stitched edges about 1/4″ again; topstitch close to the edge to create a bound seam. Do the same for the other connected long rectangle piece.
19. Using either a hand-sewing needle or a long basting stitch on your machine (or a gathering foot if you have it!), stitch long, basting stitches along the long raw edge of each long rectangle, and along the unbound raw edges of the angled ruffles. Pull the thread to gather the pieces into ruffles.
Finish the Collar
20. Pin one long ruffled rectangle under the button placket of your collar piece, matching the length by pulling on the basting thread. Pin the angled ruffled piece underneath the long ruffled piece – the piece will only go down about 3/4 of the way of the placket. Fold the bottom of the placket under the long rectangle ruffle end about 1/4″.21. Topstitch the edge of the placket, through all layers to secure. (I chose to connect the top of the rectangle ruffle under my collar band piece, but leave the top of the angled ruffle free, like “wings.”)
21. Repeat for the other side and the buttonhole placket.
23. We need to re-connect the collar to the shirt now – so start with the button placket side, and pin down overlapping the open hole in the front of the shirt. (Make sure the buttons are centered over the center front seam!) Pin the placket to the shirt, going straight upwards all the way to the collar area.
Pin the collar to the back of the shirt, overlapping the back of the shirt as much as you can by angling the collar downward. Between the top of the placket and the shoulder seam of the shirt, you’re going to have excess fabric, so gather it and pin the collar over it.24. Topstitch the button placket to the shirt. (I had to zigzag over the collar band connection at the back of the shirt – there was a small gap that no amount of angling that collar piece was going to fix.)
25. Place buttonhole placket end over end of button placket, and do up the bottom button.
Topstitch end down, through all layers, and reinforce stitching.
26. Un-button bottom button, and pin buttonhole placket to front of shirt in the same manner as you did the button placket. Topstitch through all layers.
Finish the Armscyes
27. Try on the shirt and draw the shape of the shoulder how you want it.
28. Take off the shirt, and cut the armscye shape about 1/2″ on the outside of your markings. Trace the shape onto the other shoulder, and cut it out too.
29. Turn under 1/2″ of an inch, and stitch about 3/8″ from the edge to finish, notching as you go. (If you want a more finished look, cut the armscye 3/4″ outside of your markings, turn once and topstitch; turn again and topstitch to create a bound seam. I find this very difficult along a curve, as often the armscye becomes tighter and smaller the more times you turn the edge, and notching the inside on such a small seam allowance is quite difficult. If anyone has any tips, I’d love to hear them!)
Hem and You’re Done!
30. Try on the shirt and mark where you want the hem to be.
Cut about 1/2″ below this line, fold under, and stitch at a 3/8″ hem on your machine.
Voila! A super-ruffly, super-feminine piece for the office.
(As you can see, I also added 2 bust darts to make the feminine fit even better; you might need to do the same depending on the size of your bust and how you “fill out” the bust area of the top. I do also need to press the armscye seams and remove the yellow chalk lines…I was just so excited to be done and couldn’t wait to take the photo…;-)
Thank goodness there’s someone around to redo all these stuffy men’s shirts and breathe some girly life into them!
Happy DIY’ing!
xo
Carly
as posted on Threadbanger.com in 2010 (no longer hosted there since they changed networks)
Get This Tutorial As a PDF
This tutorial has been updated, and is now available as a full step-by-step with photos in my new book 7 DIY Men’s Shirt Makeovers, part of the DIY Men’s Shirt Makeovers System.
fabulous fabulous FABULOUS! Nicely done!!!
What a great make-over Carly, the finished blouse looks like it just came off the rack!
ahhh Carly… I love love love love love this!!!!! You are so talented!
You even make me feel like trying this and I know that I'm not this capable!
..and…um…If you walk down the street like this, don't worry bout the 'thuds'. That's just jaws dropping and a few faints as well.
…damn woman…you look hot as on oven!! Hotter.
LOVE! Can't wait to do it!
The shirt looks great, who would of thought that you could make such a cute shirt from an old men's shirt, I can't wait to try one for myself!
Love this. I may have to try this. I have plenty of my husbands old dress shirts.
Thanks for sharing.
Looks awesome! Going to put this on my to-do project list.
Thanks for sharing it with us!
OOOH! I LOVE this one! I'm finally going to have some time after next week to actually start sewing again (graduating next Saturday!) but now it looks like I'll either have to pick a favorite upcycle design or get a few more men's shirts…hmm…
Thanks for all the inspiration!
OMG, what an amazing idea!! OOh I must do this… the question though, am I talented enough? Hmm..I guess we will find out. hehe 🙂
xoxo
Amy
http://thebargainhunterextraordinaire.blogspot.com
if you were going to add cap sleeves, how would you go about it?
This is an awesome diy.. i sooo need to try it 🙂
@Anonymous with the cap sleeves question: You'd start by not cutting the sleeves down their seams, just cutting the sleeves off the body of the shirt. You'd then need to cut straight across at the length you want to make your sleeves, and then hand/machine-baste around the sleeve cap, and pull the thread to gather the fabric and ease the sleeve to the new [smaller] armscye you made tailored to your body. (This will create a “puff-style” cap sleeve…if you want a plain sleeve you will have to re-draft the shape of the sleeve entirely to match the shape of your altered armscye. Do-able but a little fiddly.) Anyway, your ruffles you will have to salvage from the bottom of the shirt-sleeves below the part you cut off for your cap-sleeve…you will likely have to cut as many pieces as you can that are 3″, forgo the angled ruffles, and sew your 3″ wide strips end-to-end to make long ruffles. I'm not sure if you will have enough fabric to make the double-layered ruffle like I did, but single ruffles are probably doable!
Hope that helps!
xoxo
Carly
Thank you ladies, for all your wonderful comments! Please let me know if you make your own versions – I'd love to see!:-)
@Dusk: You are so funny! hehe, nobody's fainting around me, just running away from my hacking cough from the bronchitis that has had me in its grip for 2 weeks! (Thank goodness there's no soundtrack to photos!:-)
@Amy: Yes, you are *definitely* talented enough! It's pretty easy, just go step-by-step, try on the shirt as much as you can as you're making it if unsure…and hey, if you mess up, you can always rip back the seam and redo it, right? Good luck!
xoxox
Carly
Very cute!
Thanks for stopping by my blog, glad I found you!
Love these dresses! Swoon. So often you find the more modern dresses are super expensive,
these… not so much! I recommend: http://www.promdressesol.com
Looking very stylish. I think these are the most demand full shirt for today's market.
Really awesome shirt and tutorial… can't wait to make one!
I've gotten to the part where you sew the shirt together along the button placard and trim. Where and how to I sew? I'm sure this is ridiculously easy, but I'm just having one of those days.
@Carolyn JohnsonDo you mean Step 6? Where you're sewing the Center Front seam and trimming off the buttonhole and button plackets below the fourth button?
The shirt is indeed inside-out in the photo.
You did turn your shirt inside-out in step 4, right? You don't HAVE to button it up as well – I just do it because it's an easy way to keep everything together without using pins. When you button down the front turn the buttons to the inside (turning the placket to the right), and lap the buttonhole side of the placard from the left side of the shirt OVER the right side. Your shirt will be inside-out and buttoned on the inside. The buttons act like pins and hold the seam together as you sew. You then will cut off the buttonhole and button plackets.
Again, it's not completely necessary to button the buttons if it's confusing.
Good luck!
xoxo
Carly
I would really love to do this!, but I am a visual learner and the pictures will not show up!! Do you have other pictures or a video?
Eeeek! Thanks so much for letting me know. The tutorial was hosted on Threadbanger.com and they transitioned to a new network awhile ago…looks like all my photos hosted there disappeared, unbeknownst to me. I’ve re-uploaded everything, so you should now be able to follow along. Let me know if you have any trouble! Thanks for letting me know 🙂
xo
Carly