D.I.Y. Chilly Armz Shirt

It's a texture mash-up. Something I have noticed this season is the attention paid by designers to texture. Especially the mixing of them. While I sometimes feel tired of the peacoat/fur coat with leather sleeves look, I'm still not over it. In fact while my eyes are rolling at the countless reincarnations I am often, simultaneously, adding the image to that portfolio in the brain of coats I covet.
In a late night craft extravaganza, I decided to put this trend to the test. Lacking leather, and the funds to procure it, I decided to dig into the bag of clothing I have been attempting to get rid of to see what I had to work with.
I found one sad and unflattering sweater, and one men's oxford. Feeling like Frankenstein I decided to mix my own textures.
If your heart can warm your chest but not your arms, this is the project for you.

Materials
* An Oxford- I would recomend using a shirt and sweater in similar sizes. Matching up the armholes was a bit of a challenge and I ended up having to do a significant amount of hand sewing to make up for the extra shirt fabric. 

* One Knit Sweater- It is important that it is knit. This way the sleeves will be attached separately making it easier to remove. Also knits are chunkier thus creating a more noticeable texture confrontation.                                            

* Scissors

* Trusty Seam Ripper

*Needle

*Thread

Step One
Remove sleeves from both the sweater and the shirt. For the shirt you can cut right along the sleeve seam. If you are using a men's shirt do not worry about cutting off some of the shirt, the shoulders are proportionately longer and I would even recommend shaving some of them off.
For the sweater be really careful not to rip any of the sleeve stitches. There should be one or two pieces of yarn sewn through to attach it. Take your time with this part, an undone sleeve stitch could cause the whole sleeve to come apart.

Step Two
Pin the sweater sleeves to the body of the shirt. I started by pinning the center bottom seam of the sweater sleeve to the underarm of the shirt and then I worked my way around to the top. The armholes were slightly larger on the shirt so I ended up compensating back at the underarm seam which also took in the sides of the shirt.

Step Three

Sew!

Step Four
Since my shirt previously belonged to my father I found that while fitting it on my body I needed to make some adjustments. As I mentioned before the shoulder length was too long so I made a fold facing inwards and tacked that down. I also found that after taking it in the pocket was oddly placed so I took out my seam ripper and let loose again. Hopefully you will not be greeted by the same fuzz I was privy to.

(The seam reached to  center back)

Step Five
This last part is optional. I decided I wasn't satisfied with a play on one trend. I decided to take on the fish tail hem, but in reverse. This turned out to be a bit more complicated then I had anticipated, my sewing machine and I have been at odds with each other as of late- my oppositions response has been a substantial amount of puckering. I ended up with a top suited for knotting in the front. Which is pretty darn pleasing to me.
It didn't seem like a complete post without the final result, which included full disclosure of the journey!

Sometimes you got to roll with the proverbial punches. For me, my favorite designs usually come about when things go awry.

Please let me know if you have any questions!