Shirt Makeover

I do not know why I didn't take the before picture for this project but I thought I did. I blame all the busy-ness and craziness of the holidays... So, I will just give a description of the before shirt, I hope you will get a better idea of what I did.

I found the shirt at a thrift store for $5. The pretty floral print caught my eye; it reminded me of Liberty of London’s style. A while ago, JCrew had a shirt that Liberty of London designed just for them. I loooved the shirt but it had a pretty hefty price tag of $150.00... I have absolutely no plans to pay $150.00 for a shirt in the near future (or never). This will be the closest I can get to a Liberty of London-ish shirt. :)

The shirt was sized XL. I usually wear XS or S, depends on the brand or style of the clothes. I have done alterations from Medium to Small, or Small to X-small, but never from XL to Small. I hesitated a little, because I didn't want to make a mess and waste the shirt, but I decided to give it a try.

This shirt was from Nautica, it had a collar and was a button down shirt. There were pleats below and above the bust line.

1. I cut off the collar; I always wanted a pretty floral shirt with an open round neck. I added bias tape, and put elastic.

2. I created an additional button hole and sewed on a button.

3. I sewed both sides of the shirt and sleeves to make it smaller.

4. I then cut off the wide cuff, and created thin bias. Then, I gathered the fabric and added the bias tape.

5. I tried the shirt on, but it was still too big around the chest and back area. So I created four pleats each on the front and back, by mimicking the pleats that already existed.

6. I am ready to enjoy my refashioned shirt!


I love love the shirt. The round neck and the sleeves are exactly how I wanted them to be. Now that I have worn it a couple times since, I feel like I need to make some adjustments around the midsection, but I am not intimidated by it anymore.