Refashionable lady

I stumbled across a couple of blogs where the authors make use of their sewing skills and keen eyes to turn ugly/too big/all around wonky clothes into marvelously fashionable clothes.  This is something that I would lovelovelove to be able to do.  So I am.

First off, I had this shirt.

I got it from the Salvation Army in high school, but hadn't worn it in years. I thought it could become a much more attractive shirt if I took it in and shortened the sleeves, BUT I made a few mistakes and ended up with this:

Obviously, I now have a super cool vest.  One that will probably become a beloved addition to the dress up box, as soon as we get ourselves one of those.

Next, I had these shorts:

My mother-in-law gave them to me, because she is a very thoughtful lady.  But they had no butt pockets and made me feel sort of frumpy, so I couldn't see myself wearing them very often.  Since they are such a pretty blue, though, I didn't want to waste them.

Et voila, I turned them into a skirt!

I embroidered a pretty yellow border around the hem, just to jazz them up a little.

Attempt number the second at refashioning turned out much better than the first.  This is probably because after the first flop I payed WAY more attention to the measure-twice-cut-once rule.  It is deceptively important.