DIY: Embellished Collared Shirt

This DIY has been on my list for several months now. It all started one day at Goodwill when I was innocently eyeballing the cart of the lady standing next to me and noticed the prettiest chambray collared work shirt with a little bling on the collar (from LOFT). I was sad that someone else got to it before I did, but as I like to consider myself to be a decent human, chose to be happy for her. And then I chose to stalk her from a distance until I was sure she wasn’t going to put it back.

I know what you’re thinking: “I really wish I could see what this stalk-worthy shirt looked like!”

Well, you’re in luck. Because what kind of stalker would I be if I didn’t sneak a photo through a crack in the door from the cover of my fitting room?

So from this obsession was born this week’s DIY! The options are endless here- you could put embellishments all over the collar, or spread them out on the front of the shirt, or on the pocket, or replace buttons with rhinestone buttons. I think the look is fun and still sophisticated, and you can DIY for very little money, especially if you thrift your shirt. Here’s how I made mine!

Supplies:

Collared shirt of your choice (I found this cute JCrew shirt at Goodwill for $5!)
Rhinestone buttons or embellishments (I used 6 total)
- Hobby Lobby has many different options in the button carousel that are reasonably priced
- I ended up deconstructing this bracelet from the jewelry aisle at Hobby Lobby because it was half off and I liked the different shapes
Needle/thread

Assembly:

If you purchased buttons, skip this step! If you purchased a bracelet like I did, you’ll need to use small pliers or carefully just twist the pieces so that the jump rings holding each piece together open up and you can slide the charms apart.
Lay your pieces on the collar to get a sense for how you want these to look. I ended up using 3 on each side, but this is totally up to you. I also really like the collars with embellishment all the way around, but I was afraid it would get too heavy for this lightweight shirt and make the collar sag.
One by one, stitch buttons/charms onto collar using needle and thread. If you’ve never sewn buttons on, here’s a video tutorial from my embellished winter wear DIY tutorial:

That’s it! Took me 10 minutes, tops.

Cost

The shirt was $5 at Goodwill and the bracelet was $4.50 on sale, for a total of $9.50. Not too bad for a custom shirt that is very similar to these much pricier versions:

Top left: Dolce & Gabbana, $342 | Top right: Ted Baker, $195 | Bottom left: Mango, $50 | Bottom right: Dolce & Gabbana, $512

Can you believe mine was only $10? No way could you buy something like this for only $10.

Oh well. It was fun and easy and I regret nothing. And now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to find a black shirt so I can recreate that $342 black D&G shirt.

Toodles, tlo