Puff-Sleeved Chambray Shirt Remake

This is a recent chambray shirt remake I featured on my blog last week as the second instalment of my new Refashion Friday feature. The whole garment is based on a fairly standard commercial blouse sewing pattern (see below). The centre front of the pattern was lined up to the centre of the button stands when cutting out so the existing button stand, buttons and buttonholes would be retained in the final garment. The bust darts were stitched but the waist darts were omitted to make a looser more casual fitting garment.

I retained the original shirt pocket and used the original hem in the final design. Using the existing hem means that the pocket gets pushed up higher than on the original garment. Personally I like that because it's a cheeky reference to the origin of the blouse. If it's not to your taste, any original patch pocket could be removed and either repositioned and reapplied it or discarded altogether.

I drafted the Peter Pan collar for this creation myself because I didn't like the blouse sewing pattern's collar design. I wanted it to stop either side of the button stand. The top collar is embroidery anglaise and the under collar is cut from the chambray harvested from the sleeves of the original shirt. I really like how the anglaise has been left unlined on the puff sleeves though so you'd get a hint of flesh through the holes. The sleeves bands have been made from more of the harvested sleeve fabric. I hope this shirt remake provides a little bit of inspiration. 

Happy Refashioning,

Zoe xxx