Bombpop DIY: Western Flannel with Sequined Panels

With my two closest friends out of town for the weekend, I decided to make it a weekend in and get crafty. The result was this fun Free People-inspired flannel shirt with sequined insets:

To do this at home, you will need a western style plaid shirt. I chose this green flannel and went up a size to give the shirt a slouchy feel that I think will compliment the fancy sequin insets. For the panels you will need a sequined fabric, preferably one with a bit of stretch.

In your tool kit you will need a seam ripper, a needle and thread, fabric shears and plenty of pins.

 Start by locating the seams along the panel you wish to remove. I removed three sides of mine, and opted to cut the fourth along the seam to preserve the western detailing.

Next I took the panel I just removed and pinned it to the back of my sequined fabric, creating a pattern piece. I left about an inch of room around my pattern piece, just to leave a bit of wiggle room. Then I pinned the fabric piece to the inside of my flannel shirt with the sequins facing in towards the shirt.

I carefully hand stitched the sequined fabric to the flannel. I had originally thought I might be able to machine sew it, which would have been much faster, but I quickly realized that was beyond my skill level with my machine and reverted to good old hand stitching. I would say it took me about three hours to sew the panels in. By far the most strenuous step of the process.

Ultimately, I was very pleased with my result. I look forward to experimenting with other colors and different sequin styles!

I highly encourage you to try this, the result was so cute! I will be following up with a fashion post in which I style it, but I really think you could wear it with anything.

If you do make your own version, please, please, please, send pictures to me! I would love to post them here on the blog.

I look forward to working on more DIY projects for you to try. Stay tuned for more to come...