Shirt Skirt

So...(or sew?)...my first post on my new blog is an FO - yeay! That's the way to start - lets just hope I can keep the momentum going!

I had seen a few tutorials on the web for making a mans shirt into a cute skirt (check out: The Sewing Elf, Adventures in Dressmaking and Craftstylish.com) and when my bf announced he was going to thin out his shirt collection I knew I had to grab one and try it out for myself! The biggest problem though was choosing a shirt that I considered would make a decent shirt....the shirts my bf was chucking, he was doing so for a reason - they were nasty! In the end I opted for the least offensive....but it's brown and maroon, not really my favourite colours...but sure, I thought I'd give it a go anyway even as a learning experience if nothing else!

So here is the shirt as it started out in life:

I cut the sleeves off and cut the bottom part off just below the arm holes:

And then I...er...I stopped taking photos!!! Whoops! Sorry about that. I think I just got too carried away with making the thing that taking photos became less of a priority!

Anyway, I shall attempt to talk you through what I did....

Main Section:
I had hoped that I would just be able to sew on a waistband and be done with it - but alas, life is never that easy! It was much bigger than I wanted so I pinned the sides and sewed. I kept the original base of the shirt  though as it created a nice shape.
I sewed in a hidden clasp between the first and second button to stop it gaping open when I sat down - that was a big help!

Waistband:
Hmmm...I pondered a lot about this. I had hoped that I could use the section from the main shirt body that was left over - but it was too short - curse that big ass of mine!!! So I had read that one of the tutorials used the cuffs of the sleeves to create the waistband. After close inspection I figured that I could indeed use the cuffs for the front of the waistband but I needed to find something else for the back. I ended up cutting double thickness (double the width of the cuffs) sections of the sleeves to make the back of the waistband.
I really loved how the waistband turned out actually - the detail of the cuffs really created a nice aspect - and I used the button holes already there which was a bonus! To keep the design the same on both sides I had to position the cuffs with both buttonholes to the middle, so I just sewed on a button on top of the buttonhole not being used.
The sides of the waistband had to be tapered in to create a smooth line too.

And the final result:

 Close-up of waistband

 Close-up of waistband, open to show symmetry

Thoughts:
In general I am really pleased - particularly with the waistband. It's a tiny bit smaller than I would have liked, that's totally my own fault - pinned too much! And as I said before, it's not really colours I would choose, but I luckily had a maroon top which matched quite well. But all in all, I'm happy!
The best thing though - I made it in one night and wore it out to the pub that night too! Instant gratification!!

It's a really easy process and I plan to try it out again. Unfort my bf doesn't seem to want to give up any of his nicer patterned shirts (even for my good cause!) so I found a cute pink and white stripped shirt in my local charity shop which I will be trying it out on soon.