Friday 8 February 2013

Baby Trench - PR+P Men's Shirt Refashion

Hello everyone!

I'm so sorry that took so long, I didn't end up getting a new charger until this afternoon but I am finally back and with a lovely tutorial (if I do say so myself). I was having the hardest time thinking of something unique to for this week's Project Run and Play sew along. Men's shirt refashion is a pretty well-loved theme for refashioners the world over and though it is a very versatile piece it seemed that I had seen everything.

To make matters slightly more challeneing my only little model is a baby boy, adorable though he is, I'm not sure of he could rock a girlier (therefore easier) men's shirt refashion. Thankfully hubby came to the rescue with a brilliant idea: a baby trench. A classic for a reason. So, a little internet hopping and I discovered this adorable Burberry trench for 4 years old and upward for 350$:


Yes, that's right: 350$ for a children's coat. Seems a little unnecesary to me. Especially when this little peice of adorableness cost

2.50$
 
 
Want to see that again?
 

 

The Little Gentleman



 
 

It all started with a 2.50$ men's shirt I found in the thrift store down the street. We might eyes, I heard angels sing and magic happened.


Magic...or sewing. Tutorial shall we?

First thing I did was cut that sucker up at the seams so that I had the flat pattern pieces that made the men's shirt. Then I cut that up into tiny baby sized pieces. Now, I'm kinda proud of this as I didn't have a pattern. I just eyeballed the Burberry coat and free-handed it.




1. Front/Chest panel x2
2. Sleeve x2
3. Back panel x2
4. Yoke x2
5. Back flap thingy x1
6. Shoulder x2
7. Shoulder strap x2
8. Collar x1
9. Under collar thingy x1
10. Fauz pocket x2
11. Belt - I didn't end up including the belt, my baby's belly is to big
12. Front flap thingy x1

I also used 11 buttons. 6 on the front of the coat. 1 on each shoulder. 1 on the back flap and 1 for each fauz pocket.

I ended up cutting all of these pieces out and I still had the entire back of the shirt left over. I used it to cut out a double of the jacket for a lining which I originally thought I was going to need a second shirt for. Yay for unexpected thriftyness!

Notes on my pattern pieces.

I downsized the original collar for the coat instead of cutting a new one since it already had stiff board in it. I didn't actually shorten it all that much as the shirt collar is meant to fit tightly around a man's neck while I needed a little room for Wildeman's second and third chin.

I got the sleeves, shoulders and faux pockets from one sleeve.

I used the breast pocket almost unaltered to make the chest flap.

The chestand back panels and the back flap came from the front panels of the original shirt.

Then I started pinning and sewing:

First thing to do was lay out the chest pieces, measure Wildeman's big belly and line up the chest pueces accordingly so that they had a nice overlap for the faux double-breasted buttons. I marked that measurement so I knew what I was working with.

ps - the photos for this tutorial were taken on an old cell phone. Sorry about that.

 
 
Then I pinned the shoulder peices, chest flap and chest panels together. Remember right sides together.
 



Then I pinned the chest panels together again to attach the yoke.



Back panels pinned together:


Back panels to yoke:

 
All sewn together. So far so good:
 
 
 
Holy blurry photo...that's embarassing. No focus on hubby's old cell. SO glad I have my camera back. Anyway, sleeves next:
 
 
 
Still good:
 

Fold, pin and sew (right sides together) :

 
 
And then I tried it on Wildeman...turns out he's fatter than I thought. So, I took it apart and added fat baby side panels.
 

And a collar:


Fakey buttons and pockets (Wildeman's not so good with real buttons and pockets):



Finally I made the lining:


Sewed that sucker in:



 
 
Added sme velcro (because my 3-month-old is sooo much better with velcro):
 

And stuck a baby in it.

And when I stuck I really mean stuff. My kid has a super big belly (that he apparently got from his grandfather). I may end up replacing the velrco with zipper. That belly require reinforcement!


 

If you make one I would love to see it! Happy crafting everybody!

-Mikelina

Look at that smirk. He knows how cute he is.








No comments:

Post a Comment

I love comments!