DIY: Reinvent Your Old Button Up Shirts

Have a few old button up shirts your looking to get rid of or donate? You may want to take a look at them first to see if they compliment one another because they just might be candidates for creating new innovative pieces.

Some friends and I recently got back into enjoying patch work weather that be in shirts, jeans, or fashion of the like. This got us thinking… and as I was getting ready to dump off a bunch of my old clothes to the Goodwill we thought, what if we took elements from 2 shirts and swapped them creating all new pieces…?

We decided to try this out by swapping a sleeve from each shirt. (Don’t worry, a lot of the clothes still made it to Goodwill).

Here are the steps to how we reinvented these 2 shirts.

Tools Needed

Sewing machine/Needle and thread
Fabric Scissors
Seam Ripper
Fashion/Fabric pins

Step 1. Select

Select what 2 shirts you will be working on. (Make sure that you select shirts that have similar measurements so that everything will match correctly).

Step 2. Remove

Remove the 2 items that you will be swapping. (In this case we used a seam ripper to remove each sleeve with out damaging the arm holes or the fabric). If you are swapping sleeves make sure you remove the same side sleeve (left with left and right with right).

Step 3. Swap

layout the sections that you are looking to swap with their new body.

Step 4. Sew

(This part requires you to know how to use a sewing machine)

Now it is time to bring things together by sewing on your 2 removed sections to their new body. Start by pinning the sleeves to the new arm holes using fabric pins so that you can know where you will be sowing and also so that the 2 loose pieces don’t become undone in the process. Next make sure to use a thread color that will match the main body’s thread (In this case I used a denim thread). After this commence sewing the arm and body together.

Step 5. Clean up

Now using your scissors cut off any loose thread and ensure that you have sewed the garment together to your liking. Finally try the new garments on and ensure they fit the way you want them to.

Step 6. Distress (optional)

With one of the shirts we reinvented we decided to add some distressing elements to the sleeve using the seam ripper. You are welcome to make any additions as you see fit so that the garment is to your liking.