These Ruffles Used To Be Sleeves...

Everyone has that boring plain white long-sleeve button down shirt just hanging in their closet, right? In my case, that boring white plain button down shirt had an extremely unflattering criss cross tie detail between the two back seams that just screamed MATERNITY. Or OUTDATED. Either one, not good.

So.....I chopped it up.

(And no, I did NOT take a before picture. Mostly because I couldn't find my camera. Also because when inspiration hits I can't think straight until I've attempted to create said inspiration. And lastly because you ALL KNOW what a boring plain white long-sleeve button down shirt looks like, right???)

Step 1: The collar was seam ripped off and then restitched the seam down leaving a simple edge. A much more clean and crisp look. Besides, the collar was all ugly and slubby from use. It was time for it to go.

Step 2: The long sleeves were chopped off and the sleeve edges refinished. (Save those cut off sleeves for Step 4!)

Step 3: Goodbye ugly outdated maternity criss-cross back ties! Seam ripped those babies right out and tossed em in the trash. Just a bit of restitching the seams down without those ties and the back looks 100% better.

Lastly, and most importantly....

Step 4: The sass. The fun. The RUFFLES! Seam ripped those cut off sleeves from Step 2 and cut double matching lengths for each side of front button placket.

(I had NO IDEA that my still-sorta-new-and-scary serger could do rolled hem edges. SAWEET! So stinkin' fun. Maybe I should actually finish reading my serger manual. It probably can do dishes and mop the floors too!)

Ran those matching lengths through the serger creating a rolled hem edge on each side, top and bottom and then created some sassy ruffles using a basting stitch with my regular sewing machine.

Pinned the ruffled goodness on, sewed em down and jumped up and down with glee. Sometimes I get so excited when a project I'm working on finally turns out the way I envisioned it that I just can't stand it and have to jump around a bit.



Hows this for some sass?



Looks much better with a black belt too:



(Pardon the bulkiness, I threw it on over a pink t shirt to snap this photo. Ha! I just noticed you can see the vertical lettering on my t shirt through the white shirt. :) I am SUCH a dork!)

OK, tear through your closet and start turning those long-sleeved shirts into ruffled short sleeved sass!

A

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