Tutorial: Mens dress shirt to Vest

Have an old man’s dress shirt and don’t know what to do with it? This past weekend I worked on two of my husband’s old dress shirts and this first one turned into a vest!

The pale yellow is going to be perfect for spring – with a cute pair of frayed jean shorts and a bleached out tank underneath. This will keep me cool yet fashionable!! If you’re looking for a heavier look, try darker or more textured dress shirts. Okay, time – mens dress shirt to vest!

What You Need

dress shirt
matching thread
sewing machine
measuring tape
fabric marker
pins

First – you’ll need to measure yourself. My mannequin is adjustable in so many ways, so that part is easy. For you, if you don’t have one, you need to measure your bust, your waist, your shoulder width and your torso.

Step One

Step one – cut off the sleeves. You can see the mark I made with my purple fabric marker (it washes out).

Step Two

Next, draw a V in front and a slight U in the back – cut.

Step Three

Measure the width of the shirt – I need to take mine in by 2.5-3 inches on each side – be sure to follow the contour of your body measurements (waist and bust).

Step Four

Now – stitch the sides together and try it on. You’ll have unfinished edges, but better to make adjustments at this stage rather than after you’ve put in more work. At this point, mine was too long (in comparison to my torso measurement), so I cut it off just above the 5th button. Turned out to be just right. After you’ve got it all fitted and adjusted (I also had to take in the sleeves more) you’ll need to fold over the unfinished edges (neck, sleeves and the bottom if you cut it) and then top stitch. Don’t forget to iron your seams!

Done!

As you can see from the two pictures above – the project took just over an hour. What I love about this project is you can keep it as simple or as complex as you like. Want to still jazz it up? Swap out the buttons? Want to create a lace cutout in the back – just put one in. It’s so easy and so fun! Plus, it’s truly up-cycling!

Happy Monday!

Also – don’t forget about our GIVEAWAY!! It ends this Friday – February 28th – click the pic for details!