Friday Fashions #18, Peasant Blouse Redesign.

So, a couple of years ago, I sewed this peasant blouse.  

It hasn't really been love at first sight, and I most definitely don't wear it all that often.  Its one of those tops that I pull out for those stay-at-home and be comfy rather than cute days.   Normally, I love peasant blouses, and I own several of them.  But, this one I just haven't liked.  Its felt a little homemade to me.  Its also extremely baggy and the flutter sleeves have a tendency of flipping up and I just don't like feeling quite so immodest. 

 I think partially why it feels so homesewn is the ric rac.  Thats not usually an embellishment normally seen on purchased clothing.

As you can see, the blouse is just really a little too loose.
 So, this Friday, I decided that I would try to redesign this top a little so that instead of wasting space in my closest, I will wear it!

 First off, I wanted to add to the embellishments at the neckline.

I think just adding a few rows of decorative stitching really did the trick.

 Second, I wanted to fix the sleeves by pulling them in. So, with elastic thread on my bobbin and regular thread for the topstitching, I sewed along the edge of each sleeve, pulling it in for a slight ruffle.   This is the same technique used for shirring.
Which, brings me to my third fix.  I planned on pulling the blouse in for an empire waist by adding a little shirring.   I've never shirred anything before, so I had to play with the settings on my machine for a while before I figured it out.  Finally got the right tension and boom, away I went.  I was so excited to have shirred something.  I was totally thinking that this would be a new technique I would be adding all over my stuff, until I tried on my blouse.

 Um, the idea was to bring everything in so that I looked slimmer.  With the shirring, I look like I am pregnant.  That's not really the look that I'm going for right now.   So, I brought out my seam ripper and proceeded to undo all of my hard earned learning.   What now?  I decided that I would alter the actual shape of the garment.  I grabbed my pins and pinning the sides of the blouse, created a curve to the garment so that the fabric goes in slightly at the waist before flaring at the hips.   I tried on the shirt a few times before I was certain I was happy with the shape.  Then I trimmed away the excess fabric and seamed the sides.

 I love the final result.  I still have a peasant blouse, just one that's slightly more fitted.

I no longer look pregnant! Hooray!    I'm fairly certain that I will now actually wear this peasant blouse!