DIY Mens Dress Shirt to Ladies Blouse

I have been hanging on to my husband's shirt he wore for our wedding for the last (almost) 10 years. It wasn't new when he wore it for our wedding (we were broke, my parents paid for the day and we didn't want to waste money on things that didn't need replacing) , in fact I think he may have worn it when we went to our school prom together... Anyway, after the wedding and another couple of formal outings its collar and cuffs were not longer presentable. He wanted to throw it out, I wouldn't let him, so it has sat in a suitcase under our bed since then....

Now I am drowning in a sea of fabric and old clothes and am desperately trying to deal with my stash so decided to have a go at refashioning it into a blouse for me.

I placed a blouse that fits me on top of the shirt and drew round it (not the sleeves though).

I then forgot to take pictures, but cut the shirt out, sewed up the new shoulder seams and put the blouse on my dress form and drew the new neckline. I then used another old shirt to make facings for the neck, sewed them on, then top stitched round the edge.

I put in bust darts and shaped the sides of the shirt.

I then cut the arms of the shirt roughly where they fitted then new size armholes. I attached the sleeves, gathering them slightly to fit, then cut the sleeves to the length I wanted. I finished them by putting two bands of fabric (that were just a wee bit bigger than my arm) round the bottom and gathered the bottom of the sleeve to fit.

Finally I have a blouse that fits!

Tucked. I cut my head of for your sake, it was a gruesome picture :~)

Untucked. It is bad when the best photo is one of you trying to get something out of your eye...

I made the skirt I am wearing in the pictures last November and used a vintage pattern.  I had to increase the size of to accommodate my large waist, forgetting that it maybe wasn't the best time of the month to be taking measurements and making skirts... So, before Christmas, the skirt fitted for one week a month and now I have lost some weight it doesn't fit at all. I am going to have to eventually take it apart and re size it but until I have reached my target weight it will remain cranked in at the waist with a belt looking totally unflattering!!

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