Men’s Shirt Refashion to Cute Cropped Jacket and Mini Skirt

Wendy Herrera
by Wendy Herrera
6 Materials
$3
1 Hour
Easy


Today, I’m going to refashion a men’s dress shirt into a mini skirt and cropped jacket. I chose this shirt because of the pattern, but the truth is the fabric was a little flimsy and hard to work with. But I still really like how this transformation turned out.

Tools and materials:

  • Men’s button-down shirt
  • Measuring tape
  • Fabric chalk or pen
  • Scissors
  • Pins
  • Sewing machine
Refashion men’s dress shirt


Refashion men’s dress shirt

Fold

Since the bottom of the shirt was curved, I just folded it under to create a straight edge so I could measure out the length of the skirt more easily. 

DIY men’s shirt refashion

Measure and pin

I measured 15 inches from the bottom, which is how long I wanted my skirt and made a line of pins across the shirt to mark where to cut. 

Men’s shirt refashion tutorial

Cut

Then I cut across my shirt, above the pins, leaving about a ½ an inch of seam allowance. 

DIY men’s dress shirt refashion

Measure and pin

Next, I measured my waist and pinned the top edge of the skirt using that measurement. Then I pinned the sides of the skirt in a diagonal line from the waist to the bottom edge, so the skirt would be wider around the hips and hem. On my skirt, the measurements were 13 inches around the waist, about 18 inches around the middle, and 21 inches at the hem. Make sure to turn the fabric inside out before pinning, which is something I forgot to do.

Sew

I sewed down the side seams of the skirt using a zigzag stitch. You can use a straight stitch, too. I was just practicing my zigzag stitch. 

Cut

Once the side seams were sewn, I cut off the excess fabric at the sides, leaving a large seam allowance, which I will sew down later.

Sew

At this point, I sewed down the raw edge at the top of the skirt for a nice, clean finish.

Then, I folded over that excess seam allowance on the sides, and sewed them down. 


And here, I just have to take a minute to fangirl over these seams. They look so clean and so finished, I feel like I bought this skirt in a store. Okay, now let’s move on to the jacket.

Pin and sew

I pinned and sewed the raw edge at the bottom to prevent fraying. 

Sew 

There was a lot of extra fabric flapping around on the sleeves and armpit area, so I sewed a curved line starting at the side seams, curving under the arms, down the sleeves, and tapering at the cuffs. For more detailed instructions on how to do this, you can watch this tutorial of mine. And that’s it! I didn’t bother cutting off the excess fabric of the sleeves, because it was pretty easy to hide once the jacket was turned right side out. But you can cut it off if you prefer, of course.

This is the final result. 

This set is perfect for spring and summer. I am in love with this, honestly. Let me know what you think of my DIY men’s dress shirt refashion transformation.

Suggested materials:
  • Men's button-down shirt
  • Measuring tape
  • Fabric chalk
See all materials

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Comments
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 2 comments
  • Cindy Timms Cindy Timms on Jun 09, 2021

    WOW ! I think this turned out beautiful and very stylish. Very creative !! Thank You for sharing ☺️

  • Lalee Lalee on Jun 23, 2021

    Very unique and cute as a kitten…of course it helps when a slim pretty girl is wearing it..good eye for seeing something out of the box in a big ole mans shirt..

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