I wanted a girly shirt to wear with my taking notes skirt, and didn't want to spend the money on it. So I took a boxy button up shirt that was a little too big and some pleated fabric to make a ruffled shirt. I found this tutorial from Chic Steals, but I didn't want to make it this complicated so...
I did this. I thought I had already posted this, so lets see if I can remember what I did.
First, I tried the shirt on, inside out and pinned along the sides and underarms where I wanted to take it in to make it more form fitting. I drew a line on one of the sides between my pins and cut away excess fabric. I used the excess fabric to show how much to cut off on the other side so it would be symetrical (even if I'm not).
I sewed the sides closed, zig zagged, and top stitched on one side of the seam to hold the seam allowance down. This also made the seems look more like the original.
I ripped out the seem in the back an inch on either side of the tuck.
Where I ripped out the stitching, I basted and gathered the lower piece to match the upper, stuck it back inside and sewed it shut.
Using my pleated fabric, I cut and hemmed 2 rectangles for each side (one 3" wide and one 1.5" wide) all over twice as long as the distance from my shoulder seam to below my bust.
...then stacked them to baste and ruffle.
Starting at the shoulder, I sewed the ruffles onto the shirt along the collar down to below my bust.
