Ruffled Shirt Refashion

Let's start this year off with some color and whimsy.  My first refashion of 2017 was a dress to shirt conversion.  This is the only picture I have of the original dress.  The price tag says $5.88, but I got it for $1.93 last January.  In fact, I bought it on Martin Luther King Day last year, so it it only took me a year to get this refashion done. It was a button-up dress with ruffles on the front that had a matching belt.  It was too big for me, but I liked all the colors in the fabric and thought it could be sized down into a shirt.  

Belt missing from this picture

The first thing I did was to take in the sides a bit and to cut out the side pockets.  The pockets were placed a bit high, and there was too much fabric so it added padding to my already sufficiently padded hip area.  The next step was to shorten the dress to a reasonable shirt length.  Thirteen inches came off the bottom.  I finished the new the hem by hand.

New hem goes in

Finished hem after pressing

The sleeves were a bit short, but I didn't want to take them off, so I cut off the ends of the belt and put straps on the sleeves so I could roll them up and wear them as 3/4 length.  My plan was to make button holes, but I'm still learning how to work with my Bernina 730 and I am haven't mastered consistent buttonholing yet.  I rooted around in my button box and found two small snaps for plan B. They are not the same shape, but I figure they're going on two separate arms and no one will ever notice the difference.

Close enough for now

Here is one sleeve with the snap sewn in place.  You have to look pretty close to even find the snap, so I don't think anyone is going to notice the discrepancy in fastener shape.

Can you find the snap?

Once the sleeve is turned back and snapped up, the snaps are hidden and it looks good.

Finished sleeve

The finished shirt on the dress form.

Front

Side

Back

Zoom in on ruffles

The shirt was finished yesterday and it got its first outing into the city last night.  T and I drove down to meet his brother for dinner.  These pictures are from the hotel lobby near the parking garage.  The lighting is less than ideal, but we just snapped a few pictures before they kicked us out for loitering.

                                        

Good finished length

From where I sit, this project appears finished.