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

Tools and materials:

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

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. 

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. 

Cut

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

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.