REDO #4 VICTORIAN BLOUSE

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2010 

 BLOUSE $1.00

Church sale

BEFORE: 

I loved the high buttoned collar.

 At the shoulder were PUFFY pleats I wanted to "tame" lol

The upper arm was very wide and wrists very narrow.

 I planned on going IN on arm width and UP on arm length

 and last ADD a little something to blouse.

I found this top at the church sale a few weeks ago. It reminded me of the Victorian styles of old with the high buttoned neck and ruffles on the collar and sleeves.

Much like the characters of Anne of Green Gables

We grew up watching those, you?

I loved, loved those movies.

Her love interest, Gil...sigh.

I'm definitely going to get the series,

one way or another

AND make my kids love it hahhaha.

 When I checked out the blouse I could help but notice the puffy WIDE sleeves :/ and very narrow wrists lol  so those were definitely my focus.

Close up of arm width

Big pleats, culprit? These shoulder pads! The pads made the pleats flare out and puff up. I HAD to remove them

AFTER:

  I removed pads, took in the arm pit area, which took a few try's and then shortened sleeves to elbow.

 I played around with different looks until I decided on a short sleeve.

 I turned inside out, folded in edge and ironed down for hemming. That also took a few try's because I had one sleeve a tad longer lol

 Had to be perfect. Also on each sleeve I added a long pleat starting from top of shoulder pleats to the hem to help lesson the puffiness of upper pleats. 

I tried on blouse again and noticed loose buttons and big button holes. I resewed each button and tightened up holes.

  I wore with my thrifted black dress capri's, black calf boots and black belt that I turned around (wore backwards) because the buckle changed the look. 

I wanted simple because the details on the top were my focus.

Lastly...I used 2 strips of excess sleeve material to make the flowers.

My flowers! I used a 1 inch wide strip of unhemmed material for each flower. 

I made a fan fold and sewed in the middle, across the "fan" fold, then sewed by hand each end to make a fanned circle or flower. 

I chose NOT to sew them onto blouse so that I could move them around, remove them totally or wear a broach. I also decided to leave the edges raw so that when washed they will shred a little more.

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