I've had this plaid button down shirt for some time, and though I loved the color and pattern, it was too bulky and didn't fit correctly.
After scrolling through Pinterest and searching my drawers, I found a polo shirt of the same shade of blue, and decided to turn the two shirts into something like a bomber jacket.
First, I removed the collar, buttons, and cuffs, and detached the sleeves from the plaid shirt.
I wanted to have blue stripes running down the sleeves and also across the upper back of the jacket. This would also make the sleeves bigger and more jacket-like. So I cut out four, four inch wide strips from the blue shirt and inserted them into the sleeves of the plaid shirt.
Next, I cut out three more pieces from the blue shirt (also four inches in width) and inserted it into the upper body of the plaid shirt.
Then came the hardest part: lining up the blue stripes and reattaching the sleeves.
They lined up nearly perfectly.
Time for the cuffs! I cut out two square pieces from the blue shirt, making sure I could easily slide my hand in and out, folded the pieces over, and sewed down the vertical side, forming a tube.
Then I folded over the tops of the cuffs so that the seams were hidden inside the tube, pinned them to the sleeves, and sewed them down, stretching the cuffs to match the width of the sleeves.
After trying on the jacket, I marked where I wanted the waistband and trimmed the bottom of the shirt.
I cut three more pieces from the blue shirt, sewed them together, folded it in half, pinned the raw edge to the bottom of the jacket (making sure to line up the seams), and sewed it down.
Next, the jacket needed a zipper. I hand stitched the zipper to the jacket first before sewing it down with the machine.
The waistband seam almost matched up.
Finally, the collar. I cut off the collar from the blue shirt, trimmed it a bit, and then sewed it onto the jacket.
Voila! The jacket is finished.
