Make and Mend: Or What to Do with the Hawaiian Shirt?
A friend kindly gave me and my husband two Hawaiian shirts as gifts. Both were sized for men which meant mine, despite being called a size small, was oversized and boxy down through the waist, and then too tight where it hit the hips. What to do?
Reworking men’s clothing into women’s clothing or into children’s clothing dates far back in history. Make and mend was the name of the effort during World War II when the conservation of fabrics was essential to the war effort. Often the idea was to take something like a shirt that was worn out at color and cuffs and use the remaining fabric to make something else. Here, the problem was fit. So I decided to leave the boxy shape, but cut down the length of the shirt and of the sleeves, and I pinned the former and rolled the latter until I liked what I saw. I also added 3 inch slits at the side seams which was tricky as the seam allowances were tiny.
The result is still a boxy shape, but not one that swamps me. It looks fine with skinny pants or skirt underneath which signal that I am not actually built like a box. It also makes for a lot of airflow which is nice in a summer shirt. These simple changes are the easiest way to remake men’s shirts into women’s unless there is a very large difference between the size of the man and the size of the woman, or unless you want to give up the collar. I will explain why soon, with some photos, but it has to do with the cut of the arm scythe, i.e. the shape of the armhole.
