Polo Refashion

Remember how I mentioned all those polos? Well lucky you, today is the day I'll be sporting the first refashion. Have you ever searched for polo refashions on Pinterest? Mostly they are of refitted shirts, with the button side made into the back of the shirt instead of the front, or they are made into skirts. Rather than follow the normal, I expanded my mind to come up with something I think is unique and not the average cookie cutter design.

1. Here is our victim specimen. The pattern did not have me jumping for joy. Remember how I mentioned comfort zones in my last post? Well, this is proof that I go out of my comfort zones.

2. I turned him inside out, and began unpicking the collar from the shirt, along with the buttons and sleeves. Note: I grew rather impatient, I do that every once and awhile, so I ended up just cutting the section of buttons off. I wasn't gonna need it anyway.

3. The small chunk above became the marker for the opening. I just snipped down the entire shirt. 

4. Grab that long piece left over from the picture above, and fold it half, pressing as you go. Put the raw edge of the fabric strip to the raw edge of the shirt neck on the back. Pin in place, and sew with a straight stitch. Fold the fabric strip up so you can see the hem on the outside of the shirt, and sew just above the hem (see below).

5. I didn't take pictures of this step, sorry folks, but I put my shirt on inside out, and pinned where I wanted to take the shirt in. Then I straight stitched both sides that I took in.

6. For the raw edges on the outer edge where we cut the fabric strip from earlier, I rolled the edge over about 1 inch, pressed it in place, and then rolled it over again another inch, pressed and pinned. Sew with a straight stitch. 

7. Using the same idea for the step above, I rolled my hem around my sleeves twice, about 1/4 inch for each roll, and stitched in place. Go through and make sure you zig-zag or serge all the raw edges.

8. Now that I had most of the new piece complete I wanted to add something to balance out the masculine shirt. So of course, I decided to do lace pockets. Using the sleeves from earlier, I cut out two squares from the fabric and the lace. I pinned the lace around the sleeve fabric, then pinned in to the shirt and sewed in place. Below you'll see I have pins still in place on the pocket. I left that part open so I could hand stitch the lace in place.  

You probably already guessed what the shirt was destined to become. If you didn't catch it yet, that's okay. Let me introduce you to my new vest! 

I'm not saying that the other refashions I saw weren't amazing, but seriously you guys, this takes the cake in my book. Always remember that things aren't always what they seem.