Another Transformation Tuesday

I really don’t feel comfortable in this world of refashion, but with this one I had some epiphanies. As I was struggling through it I realized how dependent on patterns I am. I’m really good at following the guides of patterns but struggle with the coloring outside of the lines. The unscripted nature of refashions challenge me to allow myself to follow wherever the project leads and the creativity dictates. I am determined to continue trying these type of projects because I know they are good for my brain and I can feel them brushing off the cobwebs of much ignored portions of my mental abilities.

I found this shirt in an XL men’s size and I’ve been wanting to experiment more with shirring, so I snagged the shirt and started to refashion it into a summer shirt.

My original inspiration was this white shirt with the puffy sleeves. I know it’s not the greatest picture but it’s the one I have.

But I under estimated the amount of fabric needed to reproduce the sleeves, so mid way through the project I decided that I needed to switch gears on the project and I decided that I’d do straps that would cover a bra strap and I would ditch the sleeves since they weren’t giving me the vibes of the inspiration shirt.

I had to add darts to the top of the bodice to get the fit I wanted and I’m overall happy with the results. I’m not in love with the finished project, there are things I think I’d do differently and tweak next time if I was attempting something similar, but I really feel like I learned a lot from the process of trying to solve problems as they came up. Without patterns and instructions I really found my brain struggling for solutions to the issues that presented themselves. I can tell that this process will continue to be an important one in my sewing journey.