Proud that I retraced my steps and resurrected this……

July 23, 2018 by steelyseamstress 2 Comments

Normally I’m too fond of ploughing ahead and just making new things, but last year I managed to timetable a few adjustments to some of my me-made items. There are still many items to which I would like to make small (and not so small) adjustments and this week I managed to finish one of the more involved of these. I’m proud that I managed to find time for this and happy that I have this item properly in rotation now.

I made this top as a copy of a favourite RTW blouse in 2016. See below for the original RTW top.

My version was made from white dobby voile and has grey velvet and gathered gauzy trim on the yoke. I was pleased with the look of this blouse, but I discovered two problems when I wore it. Firstly, I hated the white gauzy trim that I chose on the yoke. It was spiky and irritating against my skin. Secondly, I found that my method for attaching the yoke to the body of the blouse, while neat, had somehow resulted in the front of the blouse being somewhat shorter than the back. In fact, the front was way too short and revealed my stomach (ugghh!) whenever I reached with my arms. Overall, these two factors meant that this poor top languished in a drawer unloved. I struggled to find many photos of me wearing this blouse over the last couple of years, but it did get worn in Me Made May last year:

I had a good think about how I could resurrect this top and given that I had very little fabric left over, the possibilities were quite limited. First of all, I removed the gauzy trim from the top. Next, I created two small “shoulder” pieces to be placed between the shoulder seam and joining the top of the blouse front. These are two layers thick and are top-stitched in place. The addition of these additional pieces gives a good inch of extra coverage at the lower front of the blouse. I also thought that the neck-hole was a little on the small size and I therefore cut away at the back of the blouse to create a slightly large neck hole. I suspected that the tightness of the collar was pulling the blouse towards the back slightly. Consequently, I needed to also make a new collar.

The adjustments don’t look very obvious at all. Looking at the before and after below is actually disappointing! Of course, in a way that was the intention. However, the work took a reasonable amount of time, so I’m proud that I stuck with this job.

I’m wearing the blouse today and I have none of the revealing belly issues that marred my wearing enjoyment previously! Admittedly, these trousers are not particularly high-waisted, but behold a raised arm! And no belly on display!

I think the blouse will work even better with my blue Wolfie jeans or my seventies jeans (sorry ridiculously hot again today so I’m not wearing either of those!)

There are plenty more items that could do with some changes. I still prefer to get on with brand new makes, but I did feel a sense of accomplishment with this re-vamp. Perhaps I can persuade myself to tackle another of my unloved garments…….