Refashioning a Tunic

Before

OK, so here's the scoop. I bought this shirt over a year ago from Luci Boutique in Milwaukee and never wore it. I love that place, by the way. I don't always buy something when I'm in there, but I always see something I like.

Anyway, I really liked this shirt, but it was a teeny bit too tight at the time. As it turns out, it got even tighter within the last year obviously. But, I didn't want to give up on it since I hadn't worn it yet. Enter a handy dandy black T-shirt hiding in one of my Goodwill bags.

(Disclaimer: Hopefully no one is hoping to actually follow this tutorial.  I'm not any good at explaining things--thus the reason I never became a teacher as was one of my childhood ambitions.  That's why I just go off of everyone else's tutorials most of the time.  But, you can enjoy the picture if nothing else.)

First, I used a seam ripper to separate the back of the shirt from the front up to just under the armpits.

I put the shirt on and measured how wide the gap was at the bottom.  Then, I laid the two pieces of the black T-shirt down first, then the striped shirt on top of it with the seams of the black T-shirt lining up with the seams of the striped shirt.  I separated the gap to the measurement I took when I had the shirt on.  And I cut the black fabric to be a little wider than the gap.

                                                        
Next, I pinned each of the black T-shirt pieces to the inside out striped shirt and sewed the pieces together along the pins.  Lesson learned at this step: make sure the thread that you ripped out in the first step is not all loose and hanging out too much.  It'll clog up the machine.

After

As you can see (or not), it flares out slightly at the bottom, which bugged me.  I decided to take in the side seam an inch and a half on the very bottom.

After-After

 

Much better I say.  Now, I have a shirt that fits.  And interestingly enough, the day after I finished this shirt, I found this picture on Betsy's Pinterest board.  A striped dress with black side panels!  Looks familiar!

Source: store.delias.com via Betsy on Pinterest

The goal is to wear this to the NKOTBSB concert on Friday, so it'll hopefully make its official blog debut then.