Anniversary Shirt Revamp!

My husband and I just celebrated our 13th anniversary! 

I talked a little about it in my Anniversary blog post. 

My parents agreed to take our 5 kiddos, while we went out on the town and camping in Walla Walla WA. 

I really meant to get away before our date and find a cute summer dress or something to wear, but I never made the time to go (we've all been there right!?)

My mother-in-law, had given me the shirt below for an anniversary gift, and as sweet as it was, it was just a little big and I sort of felt like it had wings (you see what I'm sayin'?)

It was beautiful silk-like material though and I loved the colors, so.......

.....I decided to give it a makeover. 

A wing trim. I guess you could call it. 

I started off by trying it on and pinning where I would want to make a cut across the top. (I'm usually not a strapless sort of gal and had planned on adding straps, but it looked fine without them and I was making it the day of the date, so I was sort of in a hurry!)

I then took it off, laid it on the floor and started cutting! Yes, this is sloppy sewing. I'm no pro (by any means), but it does show you that you can get great results without being a perfect seamstress!

This is the KEY: CUT OFF LESS THAN MORE! If you go by this, you can't go wrong (or at least it's harder to) because you can always take a little more up, or cut more off.

So, I cut off one side and then measured it against the other, (so that both sides would have an equal amount cut off).

Next was thing to do was to sew the wings off. I tired the shirt on inside out and pinned along the sides until I had the right amount taken up. Then

 I sewed along the pins, tried it on again (to make sure the new seams were where I wanted them) and cut the excess material off. 

I decided to put an elastic loop along the top of the shirt to keep it up. So I measured the elastic around the top of me and then sewed it into a loop.

Next, I quartered the elastic to the shirt. If you don't know how to quarter, see the tutorial HERE.  By 21 Wale. She quarters as she goes, I quarter before I sew, but either way is fine.  

Since I hadn't done a real fantastic cutting job along the top. I simply folded the material over twice around the elastic, pulled it tight and then sewed along the elastic. If I were to do it again, I would just have sewed the fabric in a loop along the top of the shirt, for the elastic to run through. 

 So there ya have it. A little bravery and a little work and my revamped shirt was a success!

Do you have any clothes that you're planning to make over?

--Katie

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