But I don’t want to be a pirate!

Ruffles are everywhere, right?

Pillows:

Curtains:

And of course, clothing.

I get hand-me-downs from a lot of people. Recently I got a few bags of clothes from my aunt. 3 of the shirts were the same exact thing! I’m working on something with those, but for now, here’s 2 other shirts she passed along.

White shirts are always nice, because they’re so neutral. You can dye them if you get the urge, or, I don’t know, cut them apart and make something else? Don’t mind if I do.

First, I decided which shirt would be the base, (meaning I wouldn’t destroy it), and which would be the scraps. I cut the scrap shirt apart at the seams, and cut off the seams and sleeves. Now, I have 2 pieces, front and back.

I laid out the front, since it had a V-neck, and laid down a 5” wide ruler to measure and see how well it would work for cutting strips. Note: those rulers will snap if you kneel on them. *sigh*

I lined up the 45 degree line on the the bottom, (or the top left in this picture), and laid them by each other to get an idea of how the strips would work.

Perfect! I’d get 4 across the front!

I cut the shirt (front and back) into 5 inch strips, on the bias.

Then, to get the ruffle effect, I freehanded cut them in half so they were about 2 1/2” wavy strips.

Then, I laid all the strips on my base shirt, at angles (because that’s the look I decided I wanted), and figured out which pieces were the right pieces where.

Since I didn’t have a fabric marker, I used pins to mark where all the strips went (it would have worked brilliantly too if my 3 year old hadn’t decided to pick it up and throw it across the room. Just because)

I took the strips and sewed a basting stitch at 1/4 inches from the straight edge.

I laid all the gathered ruffle-y pieces on my shirt again and made sure it worked, pinning things down.

And then I sewed all the strips down. Gathering all the strips and sewing them all on took a bit of time. This is really easy to make, but it will take time. Be warned!

Then I trimmed all the corners so everything looked right.

Pulled all the basting threads out…

And voila! I have a ruffle shirt to go with some of my newly recreated cardigans!

I haven’t decided, but I think I will end up taking the lace stuff of the neck part. What do you think?

I promise I’ll do something besides refashioning soon, I just literally have bags of clothes from people, and most all of my other projects are in Idaho, not moved down yet. Bear with me, please? Or send me a request and I’ll make something else!