Sometimes you when you are combing the racks of your local thrift store you pick an item simply for the fabric.  You don’t even pay attention to what the item actually is but the fabric catches your attention and you know you will find a way to make that item into something wearable.

Enter what I can only guess was once a hospital gown, quite a fancy fabric for a hospital gown but based on the shape and the pocket that is what it must have been.

I started by taking the sides in a bit because it was just so boxy.  I also removed the pocket because not only was the placement horrible but it just didn’t add anything to the outfit to have an oversized pocket on the front.  Thankfully this time it did not result in any holes, unlike the last refashion I did.

I knew the length of the gown was definitely not going to work for me and in fact once I brought in the sides a bit I actually couldn’t get it over my hips.  As with most of these projects I really don’t have much of a plan going in I sort of just wing it.  I figured since it was no longer going to work at this length or even as a tunic length I would take it up to shirt length.

I thought I might be able to keep the neckline as is but no matter how many things changed it just looked like a hospital gown to me.  And lets be honest no one wants to wear a hospital gown even when they are in the hospital so a change was in order.  I went ahead and cut the neckline out and widened it a bit and after a bit of trial and error decided to take some bias tape and line the neckline with it.  This was my chance to add a bit of colour to the outfit so I settled on a dark teal bias tape.

I still wasn’t loving it although still such an improvement from the before.  For a little bit more interest at the neckline I thought I would add a button loop and button closing the gap a bit at the front.  You also can’t quite tell in this picture but it is still tight at the hips so the only idea I could come up with was adding a black jersey band along the bottom which would give me the stretch I need at the bottom of the shirt.

Here is the final product, a super comfortable shirt that can be worn with skinny jeans and Toms or even dressed up a bit with some black pants and heels.

The best part about this refashion is that it started as a hospital gown.  How many people would have just walked passed it because let’s be honest most people aren’t in the market for a hospital gown.  Every project like this that I complete I get more excited about the amazing things you can do with a sewing machine and a pile of items from a thrift store.  Why buy everything new when you can just give new life to something already out there.