Re-Stitching

My grandmother (who we hardly ever see) works as a janitor in a high school.   Once or twice a year, she goes through all the lost and found there and sends a gigantic bag of mislaid clothes and hoodies via my mother to me.  I have never figured whether this is an act of charity, that she doesn't think we can afford to clothe our kids, or simply something to remind us that she does exist, and occasionally thinks of us.  Either way, not one to shirk a bag of clothing, we sort through and keep what we can possibly use and Goodwill the rest. Most of it is hoodies in all different shapes, sizes, and conditions.  I will NEVER have to buy another hoodie.  Probably 3/4 of the remainder is teenage girls' clothes.  I will not waste a moment wondering what causes so many girls to lose their clothes in that school....anyway, a lot of them are plainly indecent and get tossed away.  Some are packed away for Lilith to have when she is older (nice jeans, decent t-shirts or sweaters).  Some I give to her to wear to sleep in or over tank tops.  There have been several cute button down shirts though lately that the girls have been interested in but are beyond huge.  I've been wanting to cut down and see if I can re-size a shirt correctly so I took one and set to experimenting.  Ever since I cut down a green thermal Goodwill shirt for Gryphon for a Halloween costume I've been wanting to try that for other things.  Kids clothes are few and far between at Goodwill, but an adult shirt that could be re-sized....those are a dime a dozen.  I can resize skirts, but shirts are a little more difficult.  The shirt I started with was an adult large. 

I wished I had taken a before picture, but it has not changed too much in these pictures.  I kept the length, but slimmed down the shirt by ripping the seams up the side and taking the sleeve off.  I cut about 2 inches off each side of the shirt, and reshaped the armhole to be much smaller.  Then I stitched up the sides, gathered the sleeve at the top (I did not cut it down, just gathered it to make it fit) and sewed it back on.  Then we dug an old elastic butterfly belt of mine out of the costume box and VOILA new shirt-dress!   I don't think I'm done with the sleeves---they still stick out a bit.  I might either trim them back to be cap sleeves, or I might gather them with elastic.

Miss Lilith is happy with it, and Ivy is jealous.  So I guess more remakings of old shirts will be in the works :).