My internet pal Laura sent me a few seriously awesome gems to refashion a few weeks ago. This is the first of them. I love the stripes and the placket (Funny enough, Hello Holiday has something similar in stock). I also liked the mix of horizontal and vertical stripes.  They're not nearly as dizzying in person, FYI. Since the shirt was too big in the shoulders, I thought I would take it apart and use the Banksia pattern to make it fit me. It was an epic fail. I didn't follow the pattern like I should have and got a pretty wonky result. I'm not sure if you can tell from here, but my darts are lopsided. WHAT? And they're really pointy. The neck hole is a bit too tight for me to button the placket up, too. I sort of halfway used a pattern and halfway winged it which makes for a disastrous end. It's not entirely unsalvageable, fortunately. I think I'll take out the darts and take in the waist. If all fails miserably, Penelope is pretty much just straight lines at this point and would look so adorable as a candy striper. I've hit a bit of a rough patch recently with sewing and creativity. I keep telling myself: I'll only fail if I don't do anything creative.