Sewing a Woman's Shirt from a Man's Shirt

That good old Pfaff sewing machine has been working with vintage tablecloths and napkins to help me create a woman's work shirt that takes on some feminine aspects. There was a work shirt application about painted and appliqued men's shirts previously posted, and this is another way to work with men's shirts.

A blue plaid size L man's shirt was newly purchased at a discount store. The white and blue pieces of fabric with embroidered flowers were cut from a vintage tablecloth and added to the plaid to perk up its appearance.









The shirt cuffs have an extended triangular piece of cut work taken from a vintage tablecloth (mirror images on left and right cuff). That fabric was then appliqued over the sleeves and down to the cuff from a 5" length triangular swatch.
When folded upwards, the cuffs show the pretty cut work.

Likewise, the back and front yokes of the shirt were similarly appliqued. Above is the back neck and below is the front of the woMAN's shirt:

I like to wear long sleeved shirts year-round to hide a bit of my compression bandage, and finding cool summer fabrics in long sleeved shirts is a bit of a challenge, except when shopping in the men's section of department stores.

Purchasing a man's 100% cotton shirt and then feminizing it with sewing techniques makes it somewhat more of woman's apparel and solves the problem of looking for shirts with long sleeves that are less available in women's clothing. Wear it over a t-shirt and it creates a sort of easy-wear jacket that hides a multitudes of figure problems.

Decoupage and Greeting Cards

"Of all the means to insure happiness throughout the whole of life, by far the most important is the acquistion of friends. "-- Epicurus


Greeting cards, get well cards, birthday cards, sympathy cards...I cannot bear to throw them away because the sentiments, although sometimes only pre-printed, are efforts to keep friendships alive.

Several years ago when I was going through an extended illness, cards sent by friends and family helped keep my spirits uplifted. I decoupaged them onto a little table where some costume jewelry resides, and those bits of cards remind me of the value of friendship.

A little Modgepodge and some cutting and pasting were all that was necessary to make this useful little side table an enduring sentimental symbol of love.

Taking on an old piece of furniture and decoupaging it with special gift wrap or other unique papers is a project which you might like just for its preservation value of sentiment alone.

Our Dogs' Days of Summer

July is hot in western Colorado. Our high temp tomorrow is expected to be 98 degrees F. Wilstar says the Dog Days of Summer are

1 : the period between early July and early September when the hot sultry weather of summer usually occurs in the northern hemisphere
2 : a period of stagnation or inactivity

But as we know, the term orginated ...

In ancient times, when the night sky was unobscured by artificial lights and smog, different groups of peoples in different parts of the world drew images in the sky by “connecting the dots” of stars. The images drawn were dependent upon the culture: The Chinese saw different images than the Native Americans, who saw different pictures than the Europeans. These star pictures are now called constellations, and the constellations that are now mapped out in the sky come from our European ancestors.

Here are our dogs enjoying their Dog Days of Summer: