Refashioned Linen Shirt-Jacket

 

I have finished my two-month Wardrobe Refashion pledge, and signed on for another two months.  This means that I will not buy any new clothes for the duration of my contract.  Instead, I will change what I already have to make it work better for me. 

 report on the last two months

Given the selection where I live, and my tightwad nature, it was easy to avoid buying new clothes for two months.  For my last contract, I also pledged not to buy any thrift store clothes. This was harder.  I broke down once on a stressful day.  

One of the items I thrifted that day was the linen shirt-jacket pictured above.  I bought it for its nice quality (Nygard) and espresso brown color—my favorite neutral. 

The garment had issues, though. 

Many details would have to go, and it was way, way too big.   

Here’s what I did to it.  

1. Removed pockets, sleeve-rolling-up straps, cuffs, belt and belt loops.  
2. Took in the side seams a lot.  A more skilled sewer might have removed the sleeves and cut a new armhole, but I don’t know how to do that.  This was a learning experience. 
3. Took in the sleeves by about two inches. 
4. Put in six new vertical pleats.  There were already four—hard to see in the top photo.  
5. Topstitched in white to add vertical lines and interest.   
6. Shortened the hem by about 3”.
7. Finished the sleeves and hem with a raw edge. 

here’s what the back looks like now:

Back pleats:  Two were there already, and two are new.  (Now that I can see the back when it’s on, I think I need to take it in further to remove that flappy stuff in the middle.) 

here’s part of the front:

Front pleats: two are new and two were already there.  Two other new ones were not topstitched—they’re kind of acting like bust darts and were not entirely successful.  You can just make one of them out on the right side. 

You can also kind of see the raw edged hem in this shot.  This is to make the blouse a little less staid-looking.  I used my new thrifted 75-cent pinking shears after putting in a row of black stitches near the fabric edge—hoping that after washing, the pinked look will rough out into a cute but not stringy raw edge.   

here’s the collar and some new stitching:

This part was fun.  The collar and placket each had single rows of white stitches.  I added more in irregular lines to make it more interesting. 

Do you have a Wardrobe Refashioning story to share?

Here are my other posts on Wardrobe Refashioning.  And if you’re interested in learning more about this cool website and how the pledge works, visit Wardrobe Refashion here. 

thanks for visiting…Sallymandy