Crafting: Ruffled Blouse Reconstruction

I was re-organizing my dresser today and found a bunch of clothes that I had stashed away awhile ago. They are all a few sizes too big (which explains why they were "stashed away") but I couldn't bear to give away because I loved the prints. I thought maybe one day I could reconstruct them into something more my size, and along the way I guess they just got forgotten. Terrible hoarder!!! *tsk tsk*

Anyway, today is one of the days when I AM going to do something about my hoarded stash.

I picked this one to experiment with.



I'm not a big fan of gathered collars and ruffled sleeves, i feel like they look kinda frumpy on me. So, snip-snip-snip. Bye bye collar, ruffles and kerfuffles.



I'm going to make myself a tube top!

But hang on! this looks strangely similar to the beach dress reconstruction! Could it work? Barely containing my excitement, i zigzagged the cut edges before turning the hem in about 1.5" to sew a casing for my 1" wide elastic band.

I threaded the elastic band all the way through (with a safety pin this time *yay!*) and decided to try it on before i sewed the casing shut. Just to see how it falls on my silhouette.

Thank goodness i did that. I guess making an elastic-waisted skirt is kinda different from making an elastic top. It didn't look too flattering.

Then i decided that the elastic should go only at the back of my top. I removed the elastic from the front, and left about 9" of elastic in the back.



Now, how did i come up with the magic number 9" measurement, you might ask. It's a little bit of actual measurement and a bit of fumbling in the dark. I took my high bust* measurements, divided it by 2 to get the width of the top when laid flat. So my high bust measures 30", and when divided by 2 is 15". But because of the elastic band, you want the width to be shorter than 15". I guesstimated 12" so ...

first i ripped the side seams and then snipped off a total of 3" (1.5" from both ends). Finally I rejoined the side seams to make the tube whole again.

*High bust measurements taken around the body above the bust (where you want your tube to sit), across the widest part of the back, under the arms.

Here's the resulting top!





Nothing fancy, but i get to wear the prints I like in a style that is more flattering on me! Yay!!!