Now take your measuring tape and place it from the top left mark and line it up to the bottom corner of the shirt.
This way you can get as much natural gather as you can from the fabric.
Draw a line down from one point to another, then do the same with the other side.
Next cut out the two sides.
Now repeat this step with the other three pieces and you will be ready to pin and sew!
Now figure how you want your skirt pieces to fit. I did alternating pieces, keeping the buttons from the shirt upfront on the pattern itself.
Place two pieces together with the outsides facing each other, basically if it was a shirt, face them so it would be inside out.
Then pin along one side and sew up the edge. Remember to back stitch for a secure stitch.
Take the other two pieces and do the same.
Now take the two newly formed pieces and repeat this step again till you have a full skirt sewn.
I reccomend when turning a mans dress shirt into a womens, try and use your own shirt as a pattern, will make the fit much better and make this WAY way easier to do, unlesss you are already pretty good at sewing. I am not, but it was fun trying! 🙂
For the top I used a green striped shirt.
Always measuring.
For this I measured the shoulder length to the shirt.
From the neck to the end of the shoulder, which for this was 5in inches, place a mark. Then add 1/4 inch for seam allowance.
Then I cut the sleeves of the original shirt off.
For the sleeves I used a womens shirt to follow a rounded pattern for both sides. This made it easier so I knew the sleeves would fit for sure.
I also cut the sleeves out of the old shirt from the extra fabric in the sleeves.
Next take the measurement from the back of the neck to the top of where the skirt sits and measure along the back of the shirt.
Start at the base of the collar and measure straight down in this case, 19.5 inches. Add a 1/2 inch to the bottom. This is where the skirt will attach to the shirt.
Measure straight across at this point and cut across. This is where the bottom of the shirt will end.
Readjust the bottom: Now we need to match the bottom width of the shirt to the top width of the skirt.
The entire measurement was 34, so we half it to 17.5. This measurement will be straight across, meaning both the front and back piece together will equal 34.
Measure the entire length of the shirt which in this case was 21 inches, so I just took 2.5 inches. About an inch on each side. Leaving a quarter for seam allowance.
Make a mark. Then taking the measuring tape measure up the the bottom of where the sleeve would be and make a line all the way up.
Do this with both sides and then cut up on each side. You should get a somewhat angled v look. More feminine look to it.
Now open the shirt, right side facing downwards. Place your sleeves along the sleeve holes and pin.
I like to pin the ends first then put one in the middle. After that work your way in, this allows you to take any extra material and gather it in so no one can see any mistakes. It seems to be something I do a lot of when I sew.
Once theyve been pinned then sew exactly where you have already pinned.
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