When I was about 14 years old, I remember being home alone one Saturday with a hankering to sew something. I scrounged through my mother’s patterns and found one for a vest. I decided to make it, but with no suitable fabric remnant in the house, I needed to improvise. I went through my brother’s drawers and found a pair of dress khaki’s. He’d just been discharged from the army, so I figured he wouldn’t mind me using them for my project. I set to work using the pant’s largest section, the rear, for the back of the vest and the thigh portions for the vest’s fronts. Because the pattern included several button holes down the vest’s front, I needed buttons. In for a penny, in for a pound, I popped about a half dozen off one of my bro’s dress shirts. From what I remember, the vest turned out amazingly well, considering I made it out of pants–and I was only 14 years old.
What does the above story have to do with this tutorial? One reminded me of the other. It also reminded me how much I used to love re-making clothing. I’m guessing Bethany of Craftopia feels the same way, as she took the long sleeved, safari shirt pictured above and transformed it into this fun and feminine creation:
She tells us, step by step, how to do such a thing ourselves over at Craftopia. And as far as my brother’s reaction to my re-use of his army duds, he didn’t mind in the least. I think my resourcefulness actually impressed him!
