Men's Shirt to Boys' Outfits

Project Run & Play week 5: refashion a men's shirt into a child's outfit. This was my favourite challenge, I love refashioning, upcycling, reusing... and men's shirts are great sewing material.

I had a beautiful size M linen shirt. I used up the entire shirt and added some new fabric to create matching outfits for both boys. Sizes 2 and 6 years.
A linen shirt does not make good winter clothes, these are for summer - we have lots of snow outside, so the action shots are taken indoors.

The big trousers - cut out from the shirt body using an Ottobre pattern (Pirate Capris).
The big shirt - I used a basic shirt pattern (Ottobre) and inserted the shirt collar into it. In addition there are ellbow patches and I reused the straps to roll up the shirt sleeves. The shirt pocket was turned into a back pocket on the trousers.
If you'd like a tutorial for that shirt: There will be one! The pictures are all ready, I just have to write it one of these days, so check my blog.

The small trousers - these are the shirt's sleeves. I added some extra fabric at the crotch to make them wide enough. My own pattern.
 The small shirt - now there wasn't much shirt fabric left. Just enough for a whale applique and ellbow patches. Same pattern as the big shirt, just smaller.
You find a tutorial for these trousers (or similar ones) here.

Why not use just the shirt? Now, size M is not that big... Another reason for adding some bold fabric was the fact that an entire boy outfit out of one fabric (at least this king of fabric) almost inevitably has a PJ look. And the boys don't need new PJs.