Every year Linda from Nice Dress Thanks I Made It runs a challenge which essentially is to take a designer garment or outfit and recreate it for a fraction of the price of the original. I’ve been participating in this challenge every year since 2016, I think it was the first year it took place. Every year I struggle to come up with an entry and this year was no exception. Then I stumbled across this outfit and thought it would be really useful to have it in my wardrobe. As you can see, each element costs $420.

The outfit is from a designer who is local, but who has a national profile, called Sir the Label. There happens to be a shop in my suburb and I thought I’d go in and check it out. I was given that slow up and down look by the assistant who clearly thought I was far too old and not trendy enough to breach their portal. I felt like telling him that he needed to get a grip on the fact that his job was to sell to me not make me leave immediately. Which I did of course, not wasting my time on such people, but it did make me feel a bit better about the copying!

For the shirt I used Vogue 2634, an old favourite which I’ve had for years and have made a few times.

The original top has really long sleeves which I knew would drive me insane so I went with wrist length sleeves. I had to guess where to cut the pattern to insert the white piece, front and back and I had to cut the back with a seam instead of on the fold. Otherwise I sewed it pretty much as per the pattern.

I had a roll of fine black cotton which had been given to me by Jenny @Joeandroxy, and I thought that would have the perfect weight and drape for this outfit. I had some white silk in my stash which would have been excellent except I couldn’t find it, so I finished up using some white cotton lawn.

As usual in progress shots are MIA, but here are the finished photos. I initially teamed the shirt with my white Fibremood Gizeh pants, the first iteration, which are much baggier. I really like this black and white combo.

I made the ACT zero waste trousers, which I’ve made a load of times, with these being my favourite, and I was able to put the outfit together, but I first had to wait for a cool day. It was actually raining on the day I took these photos.

The white panel travels round the back to the side, joining up with the front panel. It shows up better on the dressmaker dummy.

I was particularly pleased with the buttons I chose. here’s a closeup. All my chalk marks still show but they will wash out. This hasn’t stopped me wearing the top I should add.

My shirt does differ slightly from the original – it could have been a bit longer, with a curved back and straight sides, and the white panel seems higher on my body than the original, which could be because the models are less well endowed. You will note that it’s on the other side to the original. I did this as the original had a separate black button band and I had an integrated one. By putting the panel on the other side, I was able to make it look as though I had a black button band.

I took the obligatory seated photo – it’s a really comfortable outfit.

My $840 outfit cost me nothing as it all came from my stash. It’s so satisfying to make a whole outfit from what I have to hand. It also means that I’ve used the beautiful fabric that Jenny gave me.

So that’s Designin’ December for another year. Many thanks to Linda for hosting, it is a lot of fun finding an outfit, and working out how to make it was a most enjoyable exercise. I really look forward to wearing this once summer is over, and I might even walk past the shop whilst wearing it!