Maternity Shirt makeover

A few months ago, when the weather was starting to warm up, I broke down and bought myself some new maternity shirts.  (Both my other kids were born in April, so all I had were winter maternity clothes; plus they were getting a little worn out.)

Still trying to be thrifty, I chose from the clearance rack at Motherhood Maternity.  I found a shirt very similar to this one, but all white:

Now, I know this shirt looks fine on the model here.  But we're not all models, are we?  Thanks to my ever-expanding rack, I was just barely too big for a Large, so I went up to XL.  I'm glad I did in the fact that it was loose enough in the chest so that it wasnt uncomfortable, but it just was not fitting right in the sleeves. 

I think I wore it for a whole 15 minutes one day before I decided I couldnt handle it anymore.  After another month I got brave and decided to refashion it; if it didn't work out, I wouldn't be any worse off since I wasnt wearing it anyways!

Luckily, it DID turn out...its now one of my favorite shirts!  (Except for it being white...I always manage to get something on the belly!)

I actually made these flowers from the maternity shirt I had from my brother's wedding 2 1/2 years ago.  The shirt got some weird brown stain on the belly at the reception, so I've never worn it since.  But I love the color, so I kept it in hopes of finding a use for it.

And, as you can see, I changed the collar.  I was a little nervous about doing that, but I was just not liking the usual collar.  It was really easy, I just had to unpick the seam, remove the offending collar, and then I slid some ric-rack in there and topstitched it.

As for the sleeve, what had been bothering me was the cuff.  It was 3/4 length and so it hit below my elbow.  But because it was so big it just always looked too poofy to me.  (And it had some buttons which didnt look good.)  So I cut it to a short-sleeve length, and then using some of the material I'd just cut off, I made some new cuffs.  And, of course, slipped in some more ric-rac before topstitching!

My favorite thing about this project is that it didnt cost a dime to make - I had everything just sitting around!  And, actually, the ric rac is VINTAGE...ever since I've started really getting into sewing my grandmother keeps bringing over little bundles of goodies that she's found.  (She's got lots of sewing stuff herself, but then both her mother and her mother-in-law died within a few years of each other and she seems to have gotten most of all THEIR sewing stuff too.  And they lived through the depression, so they kept EVERYTHING.  I am getting so spoiled living so close to my family!!!)