Callies Menagerie: Making a Mens Shirt into a skirt

After seeing this post, it inspired me to make my own version of a shirt skirt and to add a tutorial with it. Also my friend and her Grandmother made one too.The size of the shirt I got at Goodwill was a Junior Mens Large. I have a 25 inch waist and it barely worked. So the next time I find a shirt I will buy a mens large or extra large to have more of a shirt to work with.

Also I will iron the shirt before I start cutting. It was a bit tricky to get everything lined up straight.

I cut the sleeves off at the seams.

I drew a straight line across right underneath the top button, to follow when I cut the shirt.

Then I sliced the top off of the shirt off.

Looking good!

I used one of my favorite skirts as a pattern. It is just a simple straight line skirt.

I traced around the skirt about and inch away.

Next I pinned the shirt together to keep it from twisting. Maybe if I ironed it, it wouldnt slip around.

I cut around and made a skirt shape. By this time I am very excited!

To make a waist band I used the pieces that I had cut off. Having a longsleeve shirt would be easier because then I wouldnt have to piece together pieces to make a waistband.

I measured 2 1/4 inch wide strips on all of my scraps. ( I didnt have that many scraps to work with. )

Then I sewed the pieces together at the ends.

I cut some interfacing to match the size of my waistband strip. I only sewed on 3 sides ( I only sewed the ends and 1 long side )

After turning the waistband inside out I pinned it to the shirt.

I sewed the waistband with the interfacing side up ( See picture )

Then I folded the waistband over and sewed the end that I did not sew down to the inside, following the seam I had just made.

Then I tried on the skirt and started to alter the sides of the skirt so that is would be a straight line down the side. When I sewed the side, my seam seemed to follow the armhole curve, so I had to tweak the sewing to get it just right. The skirt was taken off many times to be adjusted.The picture below shows how the side seams looked on the inside.