Tuesday, July 14, 2020

Shopping my closet: Denim Shirts and Jackets "Light Refashions"

Denim shirts and jackets in my closet needed changes to be in rotation this fall.
I am grateful to re-fashion and alteration skills that help to make clothing fit my body shape.
My body shape includes:
  • narrow shoulders
  • smaller breasts in proportion to my overall large chest circumference
  • smaller thighs and seat area in proportion to my pouchy tummy.
 

 

#26 Women's Denim Shirt
  • Shoulder was fine. Sleeves were too long
  • Removed cuff and interfacing.
  • Basted and stitched cuff in place.
  • Removed collar. Top stitched collar band in place.
      After: Large men's shirt.           Before: Pin shows my shoulder edge.



#27 This men's shirt was large. Shoulders hung over, sleeve covered my hands.
  • Removed sleeves. Cut shoulder back several inches, but not to my shoulder. 
  • New arm hole was much larger than sleeve head. 
  • To take in the arm hole, I took several inches out of back of yoke and shirt bottom. This raised the yoke fairly high. 
  • Replaced the pleat in back with gathers.
  • Next time I would take more out of the shirt bottom and less than yoke. 
  • Replaced, stitched, serged sleeve.
  • Removed collar.



#28-29-30 Denim Jackets: Sleeves were too long. Placket area facings were not tacked down or top stitched in place other than the decorative jean stitching. 
  • Cut off sleeve length.
  • Serged, turned, itoned, hemmed.
  • Removed interfacing at front plackets.
  • Top stitched at placket areas in navy which blended in. 

3 comments:

I Can Work With That said...

These are fabulous! You made great changes.
Chickie

stitchinkitchen said...

in regards to #27...you say armscye was too large for sleeve head. Not sure I understand what you did with the yoke...wondering why you didn't taper the armscye from side seam to fit the sleeve?

I guess I need a few more pics to understand your process.

RanchHouse said...

stichinkitchen I have tapered the armscye from side seam to fit the sleeve in some other shirts. On some it worked very well and no so much on others. I was experimenting on this. On this shirt the pocket might have moved in too close to the sleeve. The back yoke on this men's shirt was large and started with a center pleat. I started by taking in the seams in both the yoke and back shirt. Each seam I checked the size of the armscye. I quickly saw that I was shortening the yoke too much. It moved up to the collar. Then I trimmed the shirt back until I got the armscye to fit the sleeve cap. Another way that I considered was adding a dart at the armscye.