MEN´S SHIRT REFASHIONED

Recently I looked at my sewing pile growing bigger and bigger and thought that I had to start doing something on a weekly basis to reduce the pile.
First on the pile were 3 or 4 of my husband´s discarded shirts.
Some of them had a threadbare collar, others had small holes where the collar buttons used to be....

So I unpacked my sewing machine, that hadn´t seen the light of day since last December when I had sewed some home-made goodies for Christmas and started the transformation.
I have now refashioned 3 of them, after looking around other blogs and library books for inspiration.

Here are the photos and instructions on how I did it. My sewing vocabulary isn´t probably very correct, but I hope you will be able to understand the basics.
Hope you feel inspired to do some refashioning too.
Next time I will post photos of the others, as I have done each of them in a different style.

The original shirt, note the threadbare collar  

I bought some ribbon and sewed it around the collar for a nicer finish.

I had lace that I had removed from a bra I threw away a while back, and when rummaging around for something to cover up the holes the collar buttons had left, I thought these bits would be the ideal finishing touch around the collar, adding a bit of femininity too.

At the back I sewed the middle pleat right to the bottom and made side darts too (is that the right word?)
It actually looks a bit skew here, but it´s in the middle.

I had cut the sleeves below the elbows, but after putting the shirt one, they felt too long...

Here the sleeves are shorter and the tunic looks better, I think!!

The finished tunic