FO: Floral Button Down Refashion

This refashion was so simple that I contemplated whether I should share it or not, but in the effort of showing how a little change can make a nice difference in modernizing old clothing I decided to just go with it :) So let's take a look at what this came to me as:

I picked up this Penny Lane brand floral rayon button down shirt at my favorite thrift store for clothing a few weeks ago during a bag sale (bag sale - I love you), so this shirt cost me about $0.36 :) I liked the feel of the material - it's very light and smooth like a challis - and the floral print felt fun. I even liked the touch of gingham at the yoke line for a nice print combination, but I hated the faux pocket flaps. Well, the flaps are real but the pockets are faux. Pointless and dated in my opinion (pocket flaps seem to scream 80s to me). I also hated another 80s touch - yep, this baby had shoulder pads. It's not super obvious in my before photo, but shoulder pads make me feel like I look like a linebacker. I've recently figured out that in my mind it's something to do with my neck being wide and a bit short, so the raised and widened shoulder makes my neck disappear (at least to me). I feel the same way every time I put on a structured blazer. Anyway, there is also a little gaping at the buttons and it's pulling a little at the hip because it's a bit snug. So on a refashioning kick I decided to fix these issues and hopefully get something I wanted to wear out of it.

First thing to go were those shoulder pads. See ya! I just ran the seam ripper through the stitches that attached them. Easy! Next I dealt with the pocket flaps. Thanks to the flat piping along that seam, the top of the pocket flaps are hidden from the front, so I just took my small scissors and cut the flaps off as close to the seam as I could. Again, Easy!

This got me a much less cluttered bust area and more natural looking shoulders. Yay! You can still see some of the pulling in this photo though, so I decided to slit the side splits a little higher to my hips. I don't have pics of this process, but I just seam ripped the opening about 1 inch higher than it was, and then top stitched around the added opening area.

I like the sleeves and all, but this is Florida. It doesn't matter how light the shirt, you can't have long sleeves 99% of the year. So realistically this is how I will wear this shirt - with the sleeves rolled up.

And the back after the split at the hip :) No joke while I was taking these pictures, I pulled a stray thread at the bust and a button fell off, lol. I was unsure about the buttons anyway. I feel kind of like the two toned buttons add to the 80s feel, but I'm going to live with them and see how I feel later. I may change them to solid black, but we'll see.

And there you have it :) A few snips and I have a wearable shirt that feels (dare I say it) on trend. Also for the record this shirt is a size Medium, haha. Gotta love the 80s and its major over-sized-ness. I'm really happy with how this shirt turned out and that it was so easy to change up. I'm hoping to get some good wear out of it during the coming months.