A Summer-y Red Shirt Refashion

A red shirt. That's what all team members were supposed to wear on the day we traveled to El Salvador. Well, my wardrobe was rather short on red shirts, so I took that as an excuse to make myself a red shirt. Now, I do have this one, but it's not solid red and definitely feels more fall/winter-y than summer-y. I wanted a summer-y red shirt, but as I already had a red shirt that would work if need be, my summer-y shirt needed to be made entirely from stash. That was the plan.

Going through my stash of fabric and items to refashion I found I had no shortage of red things to make my shirt out of. I had a plan or two up my sleeve. Then my friend let me go through her bags of old clothing before she took them to be donated and I found this red linen shirt. No other plan was needed.

I decided getting the shirt to refashion for free was close enough to sewing from stash so this was going to be my red shirt. I started by seam ripping off the pockets and sleeves and cutting the neckline lower.

Then I pleated the neckline to make it fit right, finished it with bias tape, and took in the side seams quite a bit.

I cut new ruffled cap sleeves from the original sleeves.

I had to reduce the size of the sleeves once sewn on the shirt a couple times until they looked right. Sleeves are not my favorite thing to do. Finally, I took in the excess fabric at the back of the shirt with an inverted pleat and some decorative buttons.

My shirt was all ready to travel to El Salvador! (It was even done with a couple days to spare!)

It did it's job of being a summer-y red shirt admirably, and it didn't cost me a thing!

Now, after being back home for a couple months I can definitely say this was a shirt worth making. I've worn it on several occasions this summer!

This shirt is quite possibly my favorite refashion I've done this summer, though now that The Refashioners is upon us, we'll see how long that lasts. I did quite a few refashions for last year's Get Shirty! challenge, and I loved every one! I hope to get done several this year as well. The new theme? Jeanius. Yep, the refashions need to be made from old jeans. There have been some great inspiration posts over at Makery, so check those out if you're interested.

Meanwhile, I would like to point out the jeans I am wearing with this shirt. No, I didn't make them, but they are new. Last week at Orscheln's I found a rack of really nice jeans clearanced at $10 a pair. I picked up 5 pair for less than the cost of one regular priced pair.  This means I can retire several pairs of my old jeans that are getting rather worn or don't fit quite right! I have quite a stash of jeans to refashion now and a head full of ideas of what to make! Now, I just need weeks of uninterrupted sewing time. Ok, so that's not gonna happen, but I'm sure I'll fit in a few jeanius refashions between now and the end of September. If you've ever been even remotely interested in finding something to do with your stash of old jeans, other than throwing them away, join me! I can't wait to see all the refashions! Now, to squeeze in a bit of jeanius sewing before leaving for church this morning, hopefully I'll have something to show you later this week!