DIY - Charity Shop Shirt to Collar and Skirt - Part 1 - The Collar

About once a month, I go around all the charity shops in Urmston (of which there are many) and try and find any nice clothes, bags or books etc. And in one of them, I found this disgustingly ugly, painfully bright shirt. But I actually kinda liked it, so snapped up it for a measly £3! Obviously though, I wasn't gonna keep it as a shirt, as I didn't feel like looking like one of those old grannies who lives in a 'community' and plays bowls. SO, the DIY ideas began and I ended up making a collar and skirt :) Instructions below for the collar! Part 2 - The Skirt up soon! :)  

What you need:

• An Ugly Shirt
• Scissors
• Pinking Shears
• Needle and Thread
• Hook + Eye
• Small Embroidery Scissors
• Elastic (for the waistband)
• Pins
• Sewing Machine (you can hand-sew but it takes a while)

First off you need to remove your collar from your shirt, dead easy! Just get a pair of small embroidery scissors or an unpicker and cut the stitches in the seam!

Your collar should now be completely separate from your shirt.

Your collar will have 2 pieces, a top and bottom, you need to resew these together, unless they are still sealed up.

Fold each side in by about 1 cm, then pin through both sides.

Do this along the whole of the collars edge, leaving your pins about 2 or 3 cm apart.

Now you need to sew, you can do this by hand but it will most likely take longer and not be as neat. With the presser foot in the up position, pop one end of your collar under the needle. Then put the presser foot down and lower the needle down into the fabric by using the wheel. Make sure you DON'T SEW OVER YOUR PINS. You could break your needle, or your machine, or both.. So just take them out as you sew.

It should be all sewn up :)

You just need to add a hook & eye so that it closes. All you do is position your hook and eye on each side of the inside of the collar, making sure they match up, then sew it on, try not to go through to the other side of the collar, cos it can look a bit scruffy. Instead just 'pick-up' a tiny bit of the fabric with your needle then push your needle through the holes in the hook.

Et Voila! You have a collar! 

See Part 2 - How to Make the Skirt here