One of the things I love to do it give something new lease of life. Very often I’ll look at something in the shops, in my wardrobe or online and see something I like about it, but not everything. Then I know that I can make it better with a little bit of TLC – and usually some hard work and a bit of swearing!

A lot of shirts on the High Street at the moment are sleeveless. A lot of shirts in charity shops are long-sleeved. There’s a solution! Below is a step by step guide for a shirt that I recently re-worked.

	Take a man’s shirt. Oversize is better. The one here is an extra-large. You will need a stitch-picker and a pair of scissors. I also used collar-tips to give the shirt a new look
	Find the seam for the sleeve and unpick with the stitch-picker. Take care with the stitch-picker as they are very sharp and you can cut the material by mistake (if not your fingers).
	Once you have unpicked the seam, then use scissors to cut the sleeve off. I prefer to use little cuticle scissors for this as they are a little bit more accurate for this delicate work.
	Here’s the first sleeve removed.Check it over and remove any of those irritating little pieces of removed cotton. Also check that you haven’t snipped any other bits of seams.If you have snipped a bit of say the seam that goes under the arm, get a needle and thread and finish these off. You don’t want it unravelling when you wear it!
	Here’s both sleeves removed.You’re nearly there now. It’s time to add any extras like collar tips.

This is the finished article – looks fab doesn’t it – great with leggings or skinny jeans:

This shirt in the demo is currently for sale in our online shop at: http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Quirky-Purple

I’ve also done a similar rework with other shirts and playsuits. Below are a few more examples of what you can create with just a little bit of time and patience (and swearing when you slice yourself with the stitch-picker). Sorry, but a couple of these have sold already.

Above is just an example of some of the things we have  for sale on our eBay shop – stock changes daily. Check us out!
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Quirky-Purple