Purple Throwback Shirt Refashion

I found this strange shirt at the Goodwill in Zelienople, PA earlier this summer.  It's definitely an odd one.  But I loved the purple plaid flannel and thought it looked like something I could improve with some simple changes. 

 I'm not really sure what style the designer was going for... puffy sleeves that cinched above the wrist, an elastic waist and then a flared bottom piece that had a slit in the middle.  Sort of an odd mix of the 70s and a peasant top.

The purple is much deeper in real life.  This picture is washed out.

The first thing to go was the elastic cuffed sleeves.  There is nothing flattering about a big poofy sleeve covering your arm!  I used my seam ripper to take the horrible elastic bands out, then ironed the sleeves flat.  Looking at it flattened out I realized how ridiculously wide the sleeves were.  So I turned the shirt inside-out and sewed a straight line (using a straight stitch) 1.5" in from the existing seam.  Then I cut off the extra fabric and serged the seam.  Ahhh... a thinner, less poofy sleeve.  I finished the sleeves off with a small 1/4" hem (shown below).

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This is the real color of the shirt.  A nice autumn purple.

The biggest change by far happened around the waist.  Using my seam ripper I completely removed the bottom section, taking out a 1.5" band of elastic (ugly!!), lots of extra fabric that was used to cover the elastic, and a big round button from the front.  I ripped the seams out of the odd finished slit in the front middle of the shirt and then sewed the slit together and finished the edges.  Finally I sewed the bottom piece back on to the shirt.  Here's an up close look of where I sewed the slit shut.  Even though the fabric doesn't line up perfectly, it's still a huge improvement!!

I tried the shirt on and the only part that still looked goofy was up near my shoulders.  The actual sleeve started well past my shoulders, creating a big shoulder poof.  So I took the sleeves off of the mid section and reattached them about two inches closer to the neck line.  It made for a much smoother transition from my neck to shoulder, without a poof.

So here's the final product!  It was difficult to take a picture of the whole shirt (I ended up standing on my bed trying to get the whole thing in the picture) but hopefully you can see that my small changes made a big difference!  I think my shirt is ready to wear on the first cool day of the fall!

The sleeves are both the same size - this picture is a little funky.

Not the best picture, but no more poofs!