From Too Big to Just Right

 It’s embarrassing to admit that this shirt has already seen a full year’s (ok, one spring and almost two full summers) worth of wear.  It has been fully test driven and has held up well.  

I found this shirt on the sale rack at Kohls and I really loved the floral pattern.  It was about 4 sizes too big, though.  I think it cost something like $5, and it looked like it would make a great (but short) casual dress or bathing suit cover.  
Too big…

I started by cutting off the sleeves, leaving just enough excess to turn under and finish off the new sleeveless openings with a straight stitch.

Sleeveless
 

There was a bunch of excess on each side, so I turned the shirt inside out and pinned it up.

A little bit too big for me
I started doing just one side at a time, beginning with the left.
 
Pinned up

I gave it a straight stitch up the side, then trimmed the excess.


To make sure that the shirt wound up even, I folded over the completed side and marked the line on the other side.  

Before stitching it up, I tore the care instruction tag out of the old seam and pinned it on the new seam.

 
Next, I finished off the sleeves by pinning down the little bit of excess and stitching from the outside.
 
This is the last picture I took of the process…

I think I got into vacation mode at this point because I stopped taking pictures…I tried on the shirt at this point, and it wound up a bit too tight to end up a dress, so I cut the few extra inches off bottom and left it raw since you don’t have to hem jersey fabric.

It has now become an awesome shirt that I wear way too often from April to August.  

I wore it for the first time on the way to St. Thomas for a family vacation last year…and more recently, on the way home from a different family vacation this year.  And in a year of wearing it, this is the best photo I have of it!

Just right!
 
Here’s a breakdown of the project:
Time: 45 minutes
Cost:  ~$5.00
 
Thanks for reading this way overdue post!
 
Laura

UPDATE:  You can see this shirt again in my post about our recent trip to New York.  Also, the sleeve makes an appearance in this refashion for a doll!