Thrift Store Refab: Polka Dots

While I was scouring the XL and up rack at my local thrift store, I kept getting weird looks from an 80+ year old woman. She would look at the clothes, then look at me...then look at the rack and then look at me. Finally, she said, "You're not an extra large, are you?" I said, "No."  I should have stopped there, but I didn't. I started to explain to the woman that I find clothes that are too big or weird and, on my blog, do tutorials on how to turn these items into something better. Then, I picked this gem off the rack...

...and said that I would probably turn it into a skirt with the buttons going down the back. The woman just stared at me for a moment and finally said, "So you sew." I said yes. She said, "That's nice" and walked away. I was kind of irritated at first. Then I realized that this woman probably has no idea what a blog is. I must follow through with my plan for this shirt, though, in the event that this woman finds out what a blog is and comes looking for this project. I mean, I pretty much owe it to her.

Time to get to work. I started by chopping off the collar, shoulders, and sleeves.

Then, I sewed the sides closed.

Time to try it on.  Yikes!!  As awesome as this looks, that woman at the thrift store would not approve.

Next, I started pinning the sides until it fit a little better and sewed them together.

I will have to fix the fit a little later. Time for the top. I folded over the raw edge and sewed it in place.

I didn't want to have to put in a zipper (please reference previous posts regarding my hatred of zipper installation). My plan?  Keep the buttons functional. I also knew that having a whole line of functional buttons down the back of a skirt was probably not a good idea (two very real risks: losing a button and having my whole butt exposed, and idiots). I decided having just one or two functional buttons was a better idea. So I sewed from just above the second button to just below the bottom button.

Now to fix the fit. This shirt actually worked out well for this project because of the darts running down the back of the shirt (now the front of my skirt).  These make the skirt flair out a little at the bottom. I put the skirt on inside out and pinned the sides a little more and also added some small darts in the back at the waistband.

Seeeeeeeewww!!

A hook-and-eye closure at the top and a little steam, and bam!

Total cost: $3.49

Word.