Upstyled Hawaiian Shirt

My goal is to tailor this shirt to make it more flattering, but I don't want to take it all apart and remake it. Instead, I'm going to take in the back to make it more form-fitting and add tabs on the shoulders to pull the big sleeves up. For this, all I need is some contrasting fabric, pretty new buttons to replace the original drab ones, and some rope braid.

Wearing the shirt, use a pin to mark your natural waistline at one of the side seams. Take off the shirt, lay it flat and measure the distance from the underarm seam to the pin (in my case, it was 5"). Put a pin in the other side seam the same distance from the underarm. Measuring across the back of the shirt at the waistline, put pins halfway between the center back and each of the sides. My shirt is 24-1/2 inches wide, so the center back is 12-1/4 inches and the pins are at 6-1/8 inches and 18-3/8 inches.

To tailor the back of the shirt, fold the fabric at each of your center back pins to form a 1-inch pleat on each side. Pin the pleat at the waistline, then turn the shirt right-side-out and lay it out flat. NOTE: Placing the 1-inch pleats at the center of each side will tailor the width of the back by more than half when finished. If that's too much, make the pleats smaller and put them closer to the center of the shirt back.

On the outside right back, straighten the fold to form a 6-inch pleat, measuring 3-inches above and below the waistline mark. Cut three 2-1/2-inch lengths of rope braid. Baste one loop at the waistline mark. Baste the other two loops about an inch above and below the waistline. Stitch along the fold line for six inches through all layers of fabric, double-stitching at each of the loops to strengthen them.

On the left side, fold and mark the 6-inch pleat. Stitch it close to the fold through all layers of fabric. Sew on three buttons to correspond to the loops on the right side.

Cut four strips of contrasting fabric 1-inch wide and 10-to-12-inches long, with points at one end. With right sides facing, pin two strips together to form each shoulder tab.

Starting at straight end, sew a 1/2-inch seam around each tab, leaving needle in the fabric to turn the corners at the pointed end. Trim corners and seams, then turn tabs right-side out and iron them flat.

Stitch around the finished edges of the tabs about 1/8-inch from edge, leaving needle in the fabric to turn corners. Sew a buttonhole at the pointed end of each tab.

Pin the unfinished end of each tab to the inside shoulder seam where the sleeve is attached, with the tab running in the direction of the sleeve. Sew the tabs to the shoulder seams in a box pattern for strength. Turn shirt right-side-out and sew a button to the outside shoulder seam where each tab is connected. Pull the tabs through the sleeves and button them to the shoulders.