Shirred Maternity Tunic - from a men's shirt

I bought a couple of gigantic men's shirts at the DI a couple months ago, planning to make maternity shirts out of them using tutorials I'd seen on the DIY maternity website. This is the first one. The second one is in progress--and orange! (love orange)

I started out with a 2XL 50-52 size shirt. I tried it on in the store and pretended to have a giant belly just to make sure it would be big enough. I think it was around $5 for the shirt. Then I followed this tutorial. I'd already made a few maternity items by pattern and by guesswork by this point, so I felt brave enough to try this. The very first DIY maternity dress I made is sitting on my sewing table waiting to be "fixed". It does not fit well and needs help. But it got easier after that first debacle. Everything else is wearable if not perfect, and everything has been unpicked a trillion times since I keep sewing things on backward or patterns don't fit quite right. Sigh.

I followed this tutorial pretty much exactly, except I just zigzagged the edge of the sleeves and rolled them up. I wanted the option of cool or warm weather shirt, but this shirt is still sort of warm. Too warm for really hot days. I did add an additional section of shirring on the center of the back since it was too baggy. My only negative comments are that the collar is a little funny and the shirt is super-wrinkly and there is no way I am ironing it! I guess I should have found a wrinkle-free fabric:)

The coolest thing about this shirt was that the elastic thread bobbin I used for the shirring was wound by my grandmother, Ila (who I named my daughter after)! (I have her sewing closet and all the goodies that came with it--thread, buttons, zippers, patterns, presser feet, etc. I love it!) I was digging through the collection of bobbins and there was one already wound with elastic thread. I have no idea when she wound it, but it was at least twenty years ago.

Anyway, here is the final result: