Refashion Tutorial – Men’s shirt to women’s peplum shirt

Look around the DIY section of Pinterest, and you’ll soon find different projects you can make from men’s shirts. They range from no-sew dresses to skirts and even kids’ pants.

I found this refashion tutorial from Cotton+Curls that I just had to try. It’s a little more challenging than many of the refashions out there but was too cute to pass up.

It just so happened that my husband had a brand new size XL business shirt that he was going to donate to St Vinnies because it was too large for him. It was the perfect item to try out this refashion, because even if I completely stuff up, it would not have cost me a cent!

Here is the before & after photo:

And here's my very first refashion tutorial!

Try on the shirt and place a pin on the shirt where your waist sits. Cut about an inch below where you pinned. The bottom half will become you peplum. Make sure that where you cut is in between two buttons. I cut mine right above a button hole which meant that I had to create a new button hole right where the seam is on the finished shirt (NOT worth the effort!)
Cut the sleeves from the shirt.
Try on the top inside out and pin the sides where it needs to be taken in. On the shoulders, mark with pins where you want the new shoulder seams to sit.
Trim the arm openings, leaving a seam allowance.
Sew the new side seams. If you want you can also add darts for a better fit. This is the top without darts. I later put two darts at the front and two at the back.
Unbutton the top half and measure the width. Now unbutton the bottom half and gather to the same width as the top. They need to be the same as they will be sewed together. I used a straight stitch on my sewing machine, but this can be done by hand. NB: I made the mistake of gathering the bottom half while it was buttoned up (ie like a skirt). Once pinned to the top I couldn't open it up due to the stitching from the machine. So make sure you gather it while it is unbuttoned!
Pin and sew the two halves together. Make sure that all the original seams (sides, middle button parts) line up perfectly. Once attached, this is what it should look like flat, and tried on.
Next, try on the sleeves and pin where it will be trimmed. I made my sleeve sit above the elbow and I also turned it around so that the section with the button sits outside (unlike in men’s shirts where it sits inside the arm).
Trim the sleeves. If you are not familiar with pattern cutting (like me), use the other sleeve as a template. I had to trim and try on a few times to get the perfect length.
To attach the sleeves, turn the shirt inside out but keep the sleeves the right side out (so that the right sides are together). Insert the sleeve into the shirt and line up the sleeve into the arm hole, as per the picture.
You can overlock/serge/zigzag all the raw edges to prevent fraying. This is what the finished shirt looks like tried on.