22 April 2009

132. Happy Earth Day from the Space Cadet, or Refashion 16: Earth Day Pintucked Shirtdress from Men's Button-Down Dress Shirt

Or, the post with the longest title in the world.

I've felt vaguely out of it the last few days. I think it is mainly Louis' birthday and the several celebrations over the weekend that kind of knocked the (?) out of me. I've still managed to be productive, crossed things off my to-do list for sure, but for some reason there's a certain extra something that is not there. Can't even articulate what it is. So I have felt a little like a space cadet. No stress, just curiosity.


Anyway, Earth Day is here and all good refashionistas know that today is not the only day to sew something that's more considerate of our natural resources. Nonetheless, I present my latest project, the Pintucked Shirtdress, made from a 100% cotton XL men's button down dress shirt, in honor of Earth Day:




I'm not sure what to make of it even now that it's done. There's goes that space cadet thing again. I like to wear it, though it is about as short as I am comfortable with. I prefer how it looks on me to how it looks on the form. I'd been wanting to do 3/4 sleeves on one of these refashions for a while, but note that this left precious little usable fabric when all was said and done. So I bound the neckline instead of going for a collar of any kind.

The original idea was to pintuck from center front to about the princess line, but there wasn't enough width on the shirt for that. So I stopped after 4 pintucks on each side. I love how pintucks leave this graceful, gentle pool of fabric where they release. But I didn't like the collective dumpy puddle right on the inside of the bust:


This morning I decided to extend those pintucks downward by a few more inches, so that they would release just under the bust. Still not the ideal placement vertically but it's much better than before:


And here's the back. I'd started out with a pintucked yoke, but it's hard to make neat-ish pintucks through multiple layers of fabric, so I unpicked them this morning and went for the single inverted pleat. It still looks like a big bag from the bag, but a neater bag:



I see some room for improvement with my side seams on these shirt refashions, which means I will have to give up some length in exchange for more shape on the side and more visual interest from the back. It's nice to have something I like to wear that has saved another shirt from a landfill, or from someone who couldn't see the potential in this basic men's wardrobe staple!

Happy Earth Day today and every day! :)

11 comments:

  1. I really like the pintucks and the binding on the arms. So pretty!

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  2. Extending the pintucks was a great idea. Very nice looking shirt!

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  3. Wow, wow, wow! I love this one! I would have never quessed it was a refashion from that shirt if you hadn't told us. Great job!

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  4. Great refashion project. Love the pintucks.

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  5. I'm lovin' that pocket, lengthened pintucks and three quarter sleeve. Long live the earth and clervergirl landfill unfriendly refashions!

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  6. I like the bound neckline. I think a collar would have given this dress a different "statement" and I really like what it's saying now.
    Speaking of feeling like a space cadet...
    No, actually a group of my friends and I have been talking about how we all feel out of it this week. I'd say maybe it was the air pressure/weather fronts except that something in the back of my mind says you don't live in Atlanta. If I weren't so spacy maybe I'd go check on that HA!

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  7. Thank you Antoinette. Love your shirt!

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  8. So appropriate for Earth Day...and cute, too!!

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  9. this is soooo amazing!!! i love it! :)

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  10. Do you have any advice or basic how to of refashioning men's shirts. I would really like to put somethings from our Goodwill pile to good use!

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