Shirt Skirt

This project idea came while yard-saling.  Here in Florida, you can go to yard sales practically every weekend of the year.  It is something that I started doing on Saturdays to learn my way around the new neighborhood I had moved into; now I'm hooked.  You can get some really great deals.  So, I got this man's XL button shirt at a yard sale for 50 cents.  The blue and orange plaid print caught my eye and I was thinking that there is so much fabric involved in men's shirts, that I could cut it up and make something fall-looking with it.

Jasmine thinking, "How can I get inside this thing?"

So, my vision was a skirt.  Nothing too fancy, nothing Project Runway, just a simple elastic waist skirt.  I cut the body off the top part of the shirt right below the arms.  Why hem if you don't have to?  This way, I can keep the side seams and the bottom hem.  I also wanted to keep the buttons to maintain the "button-up look," so I sewed shut the button front (no peek-a-boo when I sit down).  I removed the spare buttons that are often stitched on the bottom of the inside facing and also detached the pocket with a seam-ripper; I will use both of these later.

Karate-Cut!

I sewed the pocket onto the front of the shirt/skirt.  Then I started on the casing for the elastic waist band.  For this, I folded and pressed the top raw edge about 1/4" around and then around again a little more than an inch.  My elastic was 3/4" wide.

Why waste a perfectly edge-folded and pressed pocket??

 You can click on each pic to enlarge.

Waist band casing in progress

 After the casing was pinned, I sewed around and left an opening of about 1.5" so that I can snake the elastic through.  Since I started with an XL, this was going to be a full skirt.


Use a large safety pin to guide it through the casing

Once I got the elastic to fit comfortably, I made sure that the elastic was not twisted in the casing.  I hate when the elastic is twisted!  Then, using a ball point sewing needle, (the regular point needles will only bunch the thread into a rat's nest under the elastic; you don't have to ask how I learned this), stitch the two ends of the elastic together with a zig-zag stitch.  I then sewed the snake-hole closed.  I adjusted the fullness evenly around the skirt and on each side, straight-stitched through the fabric and elastic to prevent the dreaded twist of the elastic.

Completed Shirt Skirt

If you notice on button shirts, there are a few inches at the bottom where there are no buttons.  The finishing touch was hand-sewing the buttons I removed earlier to the bottom part of the button front to complete the button-up look.  Viola!  A Shirt Skirt!

Real clothes or pjs??

Don't mind me squinting, sewing inside, then going out in the full sun, is blinding!  This skirt is definitely full, almost potato sack full.  But, probably not too full that someone will wonder whether it was Idaho or russet.  It is very comfy, almost like pjs.  Not matter what this will end up being, it's what I'm wearing today!

Tonight is dinner with the boyfriend's parents.  They come over on Sunday evenings to eat dinner and watch Dexter.  We are all so hooked on Dexter.  I don't beleive that Rita actually died in the last season's conclusion.  I was in denial, because it was filmed with this bright/blurry look to it that mimiced Dexter's daydreams, so I convinced myself that it was somehow him looking back on something.  Well, look who was wrong!!  I will wear my outfit and see if anyone comments as to why I'm already in my pajamas.  Good night!