Green Ruffle Shirt

So, when I asked my SIL Shelley which wooden letter word she would like for her birthday, after some thought, she asked for a "green embellished tee!"  I was quite shocked and quite flattered.   That someone other than myself would like to wear something I have sewn, makes me feel good.  Maybe that  means my clothing items look more boutique-like and less home-sewn than I thought ;)

So to begin with,  I either had to find some nice green jersey knit at my fabric store or some premade green tees in a nice color.  Strike out time!  My local fabric store is really heavy on the quilting, flannel and fleece products.  But as for nice apparel fabrics, talk about striking out regularly.  Its hardly even worth shopping there half the time. Of course, I didn't find any green knits that I likes.  At the clothing stores, it also wasn't exactly a breeze.  It seems like the green of choice this spring is an ugly yellowish olive color that I don't think would be super flattering on very many people.  Finally I found these basic green tees.  Perfect. 

 Except for these pockets.  I knew I definitely had to find a way to hide that pocket. 

So, after thinking about the design for a while, I decided to make a ruffle shirt similar to Sachiko's ruffle shirt 2.  So, I copied her instructions and cut out 2.5 inch diagonal strips from my extra shirt, then ruffled them. 

 I purposefully placed 2 shorter ruffles underneath the neckline to cover up that pocket.

Then I zig-zagged the ruffles downward, first sewing along the pathway created by the black line.  Then, I added a couple more ruffles on top along the blue line. 

The shirt still needed a finishing touch, so I added 3 fabric flowers with green buttons sewn in the middle along the neckline.

 I really like this shirt.  Its definitely one of my favorite embellished tees. So, Shelley, you are lucky that it doesn't fit me, cause otherwise, I might have been tempted to keep it instead of putting it in the mail yesterday.  As it is, I might just purchase another couple tees in my size, and we just might have to be twinsies!