You can almost always find a great smart shirt in Barnardo’s, one like this high-neck number. I love a high-neck shirt but whenever I try one on I just don’t seem to be able to pull it off. Although I can’t pull off the high-neck style I still loved the fabric of this shirt and wanted to make it into something I would feel comfortable to wear for all occasions.
With only some scissors, a little thread and a needle you can chill (like I did) in front of the TV (a favourite pastime of mine) and turn a smart shirt into something a little more casual and comfortable for everyday wear.
Ingredients
- A Smart Shirt
- Scissors
- Thread
- Needle
- Hook & Bar or a Popper
Method
- Begin by cutting the hem off the shirt for that cropped casual style. Fold and press the raw hem under twice and stitch.
- Decide where you would like the top of your altered blouse to sit. Mark 2cm above this mark. I liked the position of the frill on this high-neck blouse so decided this was going to be the new necklace. I cut 2cm above the frill. I then folded and pressed the raw edge under twice for a 1cm seam allowance.
- Hand sew the new neckline of your blouse down. I decided to hand stitch the neckline down so I could just catch the frill with each small stitch. If the top of your new blouse doesn’t have a frill you could use a machine stitch the new neckline of your blouse to save a little time.-
- Finally, because the back of my blouse was button down and I had cut through the top few fastenings, I added a popper to the top of the back of my blouse to keep it securely fastened.
And that’s it, a quick and easy, TV watching friendly way to turn a smart shirt into something a little more casual.
A big thank you to the lovely Hannah for taking part in the challenge. Be sure to check out her blog for even more great up-cycling ideas.
