Turn a Men's Button-up Shirt Into a Raglan Blouse!

Koetiquemade
by Koetiquemade
7 Materials
$5
2 Hours
Medium

Hawaiian shirts aren't exactly made with ME in mind. So why not customize one to fit my own unique style? I'll show you how I turned a men's Hawaiian shirt into a cute raglan style button up. You'll be ready for Hawaiian shirt day at work or school.


For this refashion I used the Remy Raglan From Sew House Seven because it's meant for woven fabric. You can use any raglan t-shirt pattern you have, but if it's meant for knits you will need to size up 1-2 sizes. Maybe more depending on how much ease your pattern has and how loose you want it to fit. I personally prefer a more loose fit.


If you want to draft your own raglan t-shirt WinMichele has an excellent YouTube video to help you do that.

Grab Yourself a Hawaiian Shirt

First I needed a Hawaiian shirt. Luckily, thrift stores are in no shortage of these beauties. This is a rayon men's shirt in an XL. I liked this fabric because it had really nice drape.

The Body

Both my front and back pattern pieces are supposed to be cut on the fold. I'm leaving the buttons on so I lined up the front button placket, then placed the pattern where the buttons were instead of at the placket edge. Once you have the front cut, fold the back of the shirt in half and place the back pattern piece on it and cut it out too.

The Sleeves

I cut the sleeves off the Hawaiian shirt and placed them right sides together with the hems lined up. I situated my raglan sleeve pattern piece on the sleeves. I really like the hem of the shirt so I wanted to keep that intact. Once I was satisfied I cut those pieces out too.

The Neck Facing

You're going to need about 1 yard of 1.25-1.5 inch wide facing fabric to finish the neckline. You can use premade bias tape or make your own with the shirt scraps like I did. Normally this is cut on the bias but I didn't have enough fabric to do that. So since this rayon shirt was a tad stretchy I used scraps and sewed them together to be long enough.

Assemble The Pieces

Now that it's all cut out, you can attach all the pieces. First I made sure the front was buttoned. Then, with right sides together I matched the sleeve markings to those on the shirt. I pinned all the pieces together and laid it out to make sure I had done it right before I sewed it. Only attach the sleeves to the shirt. Don't sew down the side seams yet.

Finishing The Neck

When attaching the neck facing, you will need to have 1/2 inch sticking out past the button placket. This will get turned under to create a nice finish. Keep that in mind as you pin it to the neck. Pin your facing on all around the neckline, right sides together and sew it. Once you've sewn it on it helps to iron the seam allowance up to the toward the neck opening.

After you iron that you will need to snip the seam allowance on the curved parts. This helps the facing lay better. Be careful not to snip into your seams. You can also do an understitch on the facing too, to help it all lay better once it's all turned under.

Fold in the 1/2 inch of facing that was sticking out past the button placket. Then fold the top of the neck facing down 1/4 inch and iron.

Fold the facing over again so that all raw edges are incased, iron and sew it in place.

This is what it should look like once the neckline is finished.

Split Hem Detail

With right sides together you can sew down the sides. If you want to do the split hem detail, make sure to stop sewing 2.5-3 inches before you get to the bottom. Make sure to back stitch pretty good.

Press the seams open at the split hem. For the bottom hem, press the edge under 1/2 inch. Sew the hem and around the split split hem

*Optional* Sleeve Finishing

Because I used the original sleeve hem I didn't want the seam allowance to bother me. To fix that I made a small seam at the top and the bottom to hold it in place. This part is under the armpit so it wasn't going to be noticeable.

You're Done!!

Throw it on with some colorful bottoms and you are all set. It's super comfy and cool. Perfect for all the seasons here in Arizona, because it is still a Hawaiian shirt after all

I'd love to see how you refashion or style your Hawaiian shirts! Leave me some pictures in the comments or tag me  @koetiquemade on instagram.


Suggested materials:
  • Men's Hawaiian Shirt   (Thrift tore)
  • Raglan t-shirt Patter   ((https://sewhouse7.com/products/the-remy-raglan-top-pdf-pattern))
  • 1 yard of 1.5 inch Bias Tape   (Fabric Store or Make your own.)
See all materials

The author may collect a small share of sales from the links on this page.

Comments
Join the conversation
 2 comments
Next