The winter refashion quest is extending into spring. So here’s the latest addition to the refashion family. The 1950’s style cutesie blouse!
Before (boo!):
I was browsing through the clothing racks in an op shop one day, when I came across a bright blue polka dot top with a lot of potential. It had a definite 80s feel to it – slouchy, with elastic at the bottom, slightly batwing sleeves. Not really my style, but the fabric (poly- t-shirt stuff) and the print really captured my interest. I thought it would look fabulous as a 1950’s style top. So began the refashioning!
I unpicked the entire thing, including the strips that were used to create the thin collar. I found a fabulous 50’s blouse pattern, graded it to my size and tried to fit the pattern pieces as best as I could on the fabric. It worked fairly well, and I could cut corners (literally!) here and there because the fabric had a bit of stretch to it. With the leftover pieces, I made some bias tape to finish the sleeves. I didn’t have enough fabric left to make the entire bow on the front, so made half in the blue and the other half of it using beige polka dot fabric that was left over from another project. I thought the contrast was cute.
I didn’t have much blue thread left, so I saved as much of the unpicked thread as I could for all of the hand sewing – neckline facing, sleeves, hem and bow.
All in all, this was a fun and easy project. The only annoying part was the visible stitching marks on the bottom of the blouse, where the previous stitching held the elastic in place (you can probably see it in the photos). But I’m hoping that will eventually soften with washing and wear.
The result (yay!):
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