Friday 12 October 2012

Refashion Friday Inspiration: Patchwork Back Button Shirt/ Blouse


Hello!!! I'm back! Massive thanks to the three super-talented bloggers who shared such awesome posts on this blog and generally kept my seat warm whilst I was away getting married and honeymooning. They did such an ace job, and in truth I'm a little intimidated to get back in the driving seat!

Now, I'm imagining that you'd probably rather be checking out pictures of my wedding dress and hearing about whether or not I bought half the fabric in NYC's garment district! My apologies but I require a little more of your patience, I promise I will start sharing those things from Monday, starting with the all-important wedding dress post. In the meantime, I'm going to get back on the blogging track with my regular feature: Refashion Friday.


So, please set aside thoughts of special glamourous dresses if that what you stopped by for, and instead take a look a these patchwork effect shirt/blouse remakes. They may look a bit crazy, but making something a bit crazy out of arguably the most boring type of garment out there (mens office shirts) fills me with glee! For these garments I used a really basic blouse pattern as a basis and cut up several unwanted mens shirts from which to cut out the various pieces. 


I cut the front of the blouses from the back of the original shirts by placing the centre front of the pattern on the fold, and similarly cut the back of the blouses from the front of the shirts incorporating the buttons and button plackets so the final garments buttoned up at the back. The original shirt hems were also included to skip the need to hem the final garment. 

The sleeves are 1940's style puff sleeves with a wide sleeve band. The overall fit of the blouses is fitted with waist shaping darts on the front and back, and that combined with the puffy sleeves and self-drafted Peter Pan collar produce an overall very feminine silhouette and feel which contrasts nicely with the traditional, male-centric origin of the fabric. If you ever checked out any of my previous shirt/blouse refashions, you'll know that I like playing with these gender contrasts when refashioning garments. 


I love the idea of wearing a garment like this to a job that requires you wear smart attire. It could be seen as a cheeky nod to formal working environment, plus you'd be sticking to the dress code rules whilst also bringing refashioning, sustainable clothing, creativity and 'hand-crafted' to the type of working situations that are rarely associated with those things. 

17 comments:

Unknown said...

I love them! you did an amazing job, and it would be so cheap to do! great office wear thats comfy and fun :)can;t wait to see the wedding pics tho....congrats ^__^

French Toast Tasha said...

Congratulations and welcome back!! :) I love your ideas about challenging the definition of office wear and what it stands for.

Scruffybadger said...

Congratulations mrs !!! Glad to have you back and what a fire cracker first post back. Adore this remake of men's shirts.....so want to make something like this to wear to work myself!!

Tamsin said...

Hi Zoe, welcome back! I hope you had a lovely wedding and a fab time in NY! I love these shirt refashions - as you say sticking to the rules but in a quirky way.

Anonymous said...

Hah! My husband may find he has rather less shirts than he thought he had next time he goes into his wardrobe!

Sew little time said...

congratulations mrs so zo! i love those fashions. hubby is always getting rid of shirts as they go around the collar so this would be a great way of using the fabric!

Shelly said...

Congratulations and welcome back, Zoe. These are really cute re-fashions and I love that you're challenging the idea of business attire.

Cucicucicoo said...

welcome back! can't wait to see the promised posts! but these are also very, very cute! :) lisa

Rochelle New said...

Those are so cute!!!!!

Alice said...

Congratulations and welcome back!I have wanted to make a top that buttons up at the back for ages, but have just been too lazy to do it. This provides a wonderful shortcut. Really excited to see you wedding photos Zoe!

Crab and Bee said...

Welcome back! Delightful refashion, thanks for sharing! My husband's shirts always give out in the elbows so this would be a great way to salvage fabric (I'm such a sucker for men's shirting).

Kez said...

Welcome back! I love these shirt ideas, what a great way to refashion. Thanks for sharing!

Phil said...

Welcome back Zoe! I hope you had a fantastic wedding and honeymoon and you are right, I can't wait to see your dress!! X

Anonymous said...

Adorable, I especially like the sleeves and pattern mixing! Stephanie

Anonymous said...

Welcome back! :)

Ohh those shirts are super adorable, a brilliant re-fashion, very inspiring!

Diane Sladowski said...

Sooo cute!! And I was trying so hard to not collect anymore clothing to refashion! And Congrats!

nilam said...

Oooohhh! Absolutely gorgeous! I too love making things from old men's shirts, and this is just... so sweet! Exactly the kind of project I needed right now. :)

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