Tank Top from Button-Up Shirt

I've inherited a ton of my husband's old button-up shirts, and I've wanted to do something with them.  There are a million projects I have in mind, and I finally got around to trying one.  I found this tutorial on Pinterest, and it was very straight forward with the instructions!

Here's the shirt I started out with.

The first thing to do is cut off the sleeves.

Then cut straight across the armpits.

I sliced the sleeves open and laid them flat.  

Then I cut a 3" or 4" band that was about 15" or 20" across, from each sleeve.

I folded one side up a 1/4" and ironed it flat.  Repeat for the second band.  

Then, I zigzag stitched the hem.

Sew the two bands together, right side to right side.

Moving onto the body.  The first thing I did was sew up the front of the buttons, ensuring that it will lay flat and not peek when I'm wearing it.  I used brown thread.



Next, I pinned the bodice to the band, starting with lining up the seams.  For the front, I tucked in about an inch to an inch and a half into a pleat on the side.  For the back, I had the material meet in the middle, and made a large pleat (probably five inches or so).





Sew it together.






For the sleeves, I took the remaining part of the shirt's actual sleeves and trimmed them roughly into rectangles.





I folded both sides up twice and ironed.



I used the same zigzag stitch to hem the sides.



I put the shirt on and fitted the sleeves in place with pins.  (Having someone help you makes this much easier.)



I (poorly) zigzagged the sleeve in place.




And there you have it!




And just for fun.




~Buttons

DIY Ravenclaw Uniform

Or, how to make a long sleeved shirt into a sleeveless shirt.

Or, how to make a shirt smaller.

I had many reasons for altering this shirt, as the various titles of the thread suggest.  For the Phoenix Comicon this week, Pockets and I are dressing up in various costumes.  Pockets already had a Hufflepuff outfit from Halloween last year, so I had to come up with making a Ravenclaw one for myself.

First I ordered a Ravenclaw iron on patch from Amazon.  I was very happy to find one in bronze and blue (which is the book canon) rather than the silver and blue (which is the movie canon).  I wanted to be book canon.

With that in mind, I had to find a tie.  Any online are from the movie, so that wouldn't work.  I had to look the old fashioned way and buy one at a department store.  I searched online and found one that looked good at JC Penneys.  I went to the store--with my patch--and it looked pretty good together.  I got it on clearance, $15!

Now I just needed a white button up shirt and a gray cardigan.  Urged by my husband to save some money, I went to Goodwill to see what they had.  First off, I was impressed that everything was grouped by color; that made looking so much easier!  I found a white shirt for $5, but it was an XL--way too big.  I got it anyway.  And I found dark gray (almost charcoal) cardigan for $10.  Lucky!

So, for the shirt, it's ginormous!

And it's really hot here, so I figured it might be best to cut down on the materials I'd be wearing.  So I decided to make it sleeveless.

I cut off the sleeves, right below the seam.  This shirt is a very fancy material and it cut beautifully and has no need for heming the cut.

Next, I put it on inside out and pinned how much I needed to take in the sides.  It's about a inch and a half on either side.

There was still too much fabric in my chest area, so I decided to try a dart.  I've never done darts before and it looked easy enough.  I put the shirt on inside out again, and pinned how much fabric I wanted to take away.

It turned out decent.  Not the best ever, but definitely an improvement!

Now, for my cardigan, all I had to do was iron on my patch!

And here's the whole outfit!

This will be our outfits for Friday.  I'm so excited!


~Buttons