Today you see a skirt I made last year from a thrifted chambray dress. That was a great refashioning decision – I have worn the skirt incessantly since I made it. I’m also wearing the striped tee that I talked about a couple of posts ago. I let out the neckline elastic and now it sits much better.

All this month I’ve been thinking about style and about how I feel in what I wear, and this outfit is about as ‘me’ as anything could be. It hits all the trends (chambray, stripes, brown leather) so I feel quite stylish in it, but also very much like myself.

But wait! Who’s this?

(My husband, in case you don’t know.) I made his clothes too!

First of all, the t-shirt is one I altered. He has lost weight recently, and all his t-shirts were baggy. He offered up the oldest and rattiest of them for me to experiment with. I took in the sides and managed to raise the sleeves up (shortening the shoulder seam), trying to approximate a smaller size without taking the whole thing apart. It’s not perfect but I think it’s pretty successful.

And then, emboldened by my success with sewing jeans for myself, I suggested making him a pair of shorts. You see, not only did he lose weight, but he did the Konmari method on his clothes, and consequently got rid of his only nice pair of shorts because they were falling off him. I saw my window of opportunity!

These shorts were made with the Jedediah Pants pattern, which I’d had my eye on for a while, since on a few blogs I follow some blogger-husbands had appeared wearing them. The fabric is a greyish-purple twill I had left from a skirt I made myself some years ago. Not really the colour I would have chosen for him, but it made a good test version. And in fact they turned out very well!

This outfit represents the first garments I’ve ever sewn for him. I hesitate to sew for other people because I’m never sure they’ll like what I make, but with these successes I think maybe I’ll sew some more menswear in the future.