DIY: Revamp an Old Plain Button-Down Shirt :)

Hello everyone! Today's blog entry is a Do-It-Yourself sewing project I did the other day that I'd like to share :)

Do you have a shirt like this and the sleeves are too short or you think it's too boring?

Well it's a perfect base that you can be creative with!

I snooped around my mum's studio downstairs (she is a wedding dress maker) and window shopped in Westfield to brainstorm a cool design :)

The first thing I did was cut off the sleeves (it helps if you have sharp sewing scissors-my mum has these really good ones that make cutting through fabric really easy :D )

I kept the cuffs

 I figured I could revamp them too and make them into cool fabric bracelets :)

At first I was going to do a design like this:

With a blue zipper but then in my mum's studio I found these:

A box of lots of buttons and

This fake leathery material that looks scaly :)

Anyway so I decided to do a different design so it's okay to change designs and brainstorm new ideas at any time-in fact it's fun to ! :D

I deicded to make a pocket out of the black pleather material so I cut out a template for a pocket. I used a post-it note for the rough shape and size.

I pinned it onto black material and cut out the shape.

Because my mum sews wedding dresses, she had threaded the machine adn he bobbin with white so I had to change it to black so any mistakes in the stitching wouldn't show up that clearly.

To eliminate messy frayed ends, I sewed around the edges of the black pocket like this.

This is the outside of the pocket

Take in note that beacuse you are sewing down the edges the pocket will turn out smaller than the template you have cut out. A comparison:

Okay so now I placed the pocket around where I wanted it on the shirt and pinned it down

Then I sewed the pocket down. Be careful that you don't button the shirt and sew or else you might sew through both layers of the shirt.

Sew it down but remember to not sew the top so you can use it as a pocket!

The inside should be something like this:

Okay so now I finished with the pocket I went ahead and found some pretty gold buttons to replace the boring white ones on the shirt.

To sew the buttons (if you guys don't already know how) it's really easy :) Thread a piece of thread through the eye of a needle (I chose white so the threads would blend into the shirt well), pull thorugh until the ends meet and tie the strings together at the end into a knot.

Cut off the white button, then push the needle through the underside of the fabric where the button was and the knot will then hold the string to the fabric, push the button onto the needle and then go through the hole in the button down through the shirt and back up again several times until the button is secure and won't move.

NB: Be careful to, when replacing buttons, choose buttons that are of similar size to the original buttons or otherwise the shirt won't be able to button up because the buttonhole might be too small/too big.

Continue the process of replacing the original buttons with ones you have picked out.

Ooh you might have noticed the very top button is different to the others :)

That's always been one of my favourite buttons in my mum's button box :D It's so classic and pretty and I decided to make the top one different from the rest so my shirt would stand out more and have a little bit of 'me' in it HAHA so I kinda wanted to personalize my DIY project :)

ANYWAY TA-DA we are done!! Now you have a cool new shirt you made all by yourself! It took me around 2-3 hours (most of the time was spent changing all the thread on the machine to black and when the machine for some reason failed and I was like ARGH cos I had to unpick the whole pocket and turns out the bobbin thread got stuck somewhere etc)

Hope I inspired some of you! Here is a pic of me wearing it btw with my new pink pleated skirt my sister bought for me :)

Hmm my next project will be to sew something for Muck Up day....if I ever decide what I'm going to be lol. I decide on one thing then keep changing my mind.

Love: Michelle

P.S. When I was downstairs sewing it was around 9pm and I heard this whining by the window and guess whose face I saw at the window?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROGER!!

Well technically he turns 17 TOMORROW on the 6th but today was his birthday party! Thanks for the party, Rodge, it was a blast :) Reminds me of 'Grease"...Summer lovin' had me a blastttt... :D If you guys recognise that song YAY

We went to George Thornton Reserve to have a barbeque at first and the weather was not too hot today actually, quite cool yet humid at the same time (how possible? well it's Australia LOL cos right now as I'm blogging this it's thunderstorming and raining outside which is quite a change from the heat wave barely a day ago).

This is a bit of the Reserve. GZ and I took Roger's dog Chloe for a bit of a walk. She is so cute but quite fat HAHA...

Chloeeeee :D See how her tongue is all out? She KEPT panting and wouldn't stop so we thought maybe she was thirsty...

So we brought her to the tap and she drank lots but she KEPT PANTING non-stop for the whole day...She was probably tired and it was hot.

The reserve was fun! Some more pictures....

HAHA I didn't even realise when I took this that CG was doing such a funny pose :D He wasn't even aware I was snapping pics. Wow he must just naturally talk and act like that....well he is a Drama student :P The more I look the funnier it gets...It's like he's giving some fashion advice or something HAHA

A photo of all the junk food we brought to the picnic...we hardly finished much of it actually :L

Casual B-ball at the Reserve

3 loaves of bread waiting for the meat to arrive....Rodge bought these frozen hamburger patties and when we opened the pack they looked very orange and unappealing but after they had been barbeque-d they turned brown and actually tasted really nice :) Thanks to JJ for her EXPERT barbeque-ing skills :) We realised that nobody brought any sauce and sauce really makes a burger taste so much better so MP and GZ went to go buy sauce and came back with a huge bottle of juice and that was literally gone in less than 10 minutes HAHA.

Ooh before I forget: Shout-out to AS! Your salmon lace shorts today were really cute!! (I know I told you twice today already ahah but they really were :D)

The Reserve was filled with dog walks, barbeque-ing and fun talks (A standout moment was with KF: my fellow can't'-ride-a-bike-and-so-compensated-for-that-lack-of-skill-by-skateboarding-and-riding-a-scooter buddy :D)

 Seriously I had a Digimon Skateboard that was 100 times cooler than any bike. And hot pink roller blades and an awesome slver sleek scooter. Pssh. (I'm just saying this so I don't feel inadequate about not being able to ride a bike LOL)

Afterwards we all trekked to Rodge's house (I walked Chloe back) and we decided to swim and those that didn't want to or didn't bring swimmers played pool. HAHA so everyone decided to pool :P Okay I didn't make that pun up it was GZ but I stole it for this blog...

Roger's pool is AMAZING! There is a cave up the top that you climb a few rocks to get to and that thing on the side is a water slide :) There are little statue animals that look really real like a turtle and an alligator and a bird so it kinda looks like a cool display at the zoo for seals or something :))

Lots of fun: Water fights with self-confessed Pool Mafia JM, CG picking up everyone and throwing them into the pool, playing 'Akifball', so-called 'planking' onto the water which doesn't really work because the water holds you up..

After I had gotten out of the pool and changed etc I was feeling really hungry and I spotted a a piece of foil with all these rectangular pastries on it. At first I thought they were curry puffs or spring rolls or something then I but into one and I was like...Is there chocolate inside this? Turns out JC had taken a box of these:

and had covered each of the chocolates with puff pustry and baked them. It was so delicious!! It's like the healthy version of deep-frying chocolate (except baking them in pastry is still not exactly healthy...)
I was onto my 4th favourite-pastry-hybrid when i spied a half-eaten one on the corner of the foil and predictably, inside was a Turkish Delight. Seriously NO ONE likes/eats the turkish delights! Well correct me if I'm wrong about this theory, readers :D

Anyway I went home soon after that but THANKS FOR THE PARTY RC it was awesome I hope you had a fun day celebrating your special day too :D Except that your birthday is on the 6th but still I remember my 16th birthday party I held it like 2 weeks after my actual birthday because of clashing with exams/assessments so yeah it's perfectly cool to celebrate your bday on another day than your bday (ensuring it's not TOO far from your actual bday....probably 6 months later is pushing it a bit LOL)

I'm glad I ended up going, you've been one of my best friends since year 7 (going to your house today I remembered your party in Year 7 SERIOUSLY THAT WAS AWESOME) and I'm glad I didn't flake on you after all. You see, this is the story of the drama of going/not going to Rodge's:
-At first, I was going to carpool with my friend JP who lives just one street down from me (SUPER handy we can have our chem study seshs easily even once at 9 she came over and we were just both in sweats LOL then we had a quick revision for the prac test :D One time at 9pm she even came around with red velvet cupcakes randomly :D)
-Then JP couldn't go anymore so my mum said if I didn't really want to go (because BT and RH ma gurl frans weren't going I didn't feel up to it) I shouldn't go so I thought ok I won't go
-Yesterday I saw RH and BT (and HH too) at towers and after shopping for Rodge's present we decided we would go after all
-This morning I got a text from BT saying she wasn't up to it due to tiredness and I decided not to go cos i'm not that great with bus catching (also sometimes I get into anti-social apathetic-ish moods where I just want to read Horrible Histories at home and eat Mi Goreng)
-Then I got a text from GZ saying if I wanted he could catch the bus with me then I realised I CAN'T BE A FLAKE! That goes against my belief that you have to live up to the decisions you make and put effort into friendships, and whether you're up for it or not, sometimes it's not only for yourself but you have to think of other people. I couldn't let Rodge down! So I turned my attitude around and heypresto my dad said he could give me a lift to the party. WOO!

Love: Michelle

P.S. Looking forward to having a girlie day out with my older sis tomorrow :) We may be watching 'The Adventures of Tin-Tin' in the cinema then eating ice-cream from Mother Crepe. Hoping you guys all have exciting plans tomorrow too!

On the mention of my sister, a funny convo we had yesterday: [To understand fully 'Home' is the name of a club in Sydney]

Me: So I hear you're going out tomorrow night.
Rose: Yeah, I'm going clubbing.
Me: Oh where are you going?
Rose: 'Home'
Me: No where are you going clubbing?
Rose: I'm going 'Home'
Me: But I thought you said you were going out!
Rose: Yeah I am
Me: I was asking you where you're going exactly
Rose: I already said I'm going 'Home'!

Stupid conversation continues for 5 minutes until
Me: WHERE ARE YOU GOING??
Rose: A CLUB CALLED 'HOME' !

ROFL

Love: Michelle