Fixed Parfum

I've unpicked, chopped/resized the shoulder a bit, and re-sewn the sleeves in. Felt much better about the pink silk chiffon blouse now than before. :)

Have a nice weekend!

Far

2013 Refashion #4: Spring Silk Chiffon Blouse

Earlier today I completed my spring silk chiffon refashion. I can breathe easier now, and hopefully become more productive in the coming week for the remainder of the Essential Top Sew-A-Long that's concluding on April 7.

As a recap (previously blogged here):

The original garment was my 5-6 years old long dress from Zara Basic. It's silk chiffon, empire waisted with spaghetti straps and (originally) lined with acetate lining.

I wanted the look of View D, but without hem band, and short flutter sleeves (since I have to consider the available yardage here). For the sleeves, I used the pattern for View B's sleeves but left out the band. No need to accentuate my biceps with a band there methinks ;)

The pattern didn't come with pieces nor instructions for lining, so that added up to the time of thinking, plotting and whatnot (not including pattern resizing/alterations that came way before). I basically  just follow the instruction for adding the back bodice button placket.

 

Notice that the neckline gathers are not uniform? Bigger gathers on the right side (colored side) than the one on the left (white side)... Oh well... 

The collar is also not the same as the pattern. It's shorter/thinner, not  gathered and pieced with the back (loop-buttoned) section of the original garment.

The sleeve was 1) pieced - not enough fabric to cut as one, and 2) fully lined before attached to bodice.

Hemming was tricky since I had to hem the main fabric and lining together. I hide the hem stitching from showing on the outside by catching it to the lining side only... Kinda ripply no?

These shank buttons were thrifted, and was sewn onto a thrifted cardigan last year but I unpick them from the cardigan (the cardigan needs regular flat buttons). For the loops, I used the spaghetti strap of the original garment.

It fits "perfectly" enough (lol). In my book that means I feel comfy and not worry that my bits are unflattering-ly showcased. I would definitely be wearing this a lot. For the next make of this look, I would add more (will start with an inch) to the shoulder seams though to make space for the french seams.

Kinda thinking that white pants would be nice with this blouse... Maybe I can find one at the thrift store... I am going to make my very first cardigan top for my next 2013 Essential Top... More on this later.

;),
Far

p/s: Happy Easter to all who are observing the holiday :)

Linking on to Refashion Co-op, Recycled Fashion and Cation Design's March Stashbusting!

work in progress: essential top #1

I'm starting off my 2013 Essential Tops sew-a-long with a refashion project. Of course :)

I have the tendency of getting side tracked whenever I'm in front of the pc (i also read blogs on my phone and once a while on the kindle fire, but most of the time i have the Law & Order on that) so am trying to keep this short and simple.

Here is my old silk chiffon maxi?/sundress from Zara Basic. Last time I wore it was when I was 6 mths pregnant:

I've cut off the original acetate lining and used it when making one of my muslin parts for the Peony Pink M6702 top since the picture was taken.

Isn't the print very spring-y? It seems to have some of the Pantone's 2013 Spring Color in it IMO...

This is the pattern I'm working from:

The neckline would be like View D, except that there won't be gathers on the collar and I want to incorporate the back/button loops of the original dress on the back side of the new top collar. And adding more button loops by using the original strap which matches the existing button loops...

I am planning to incorporate some sort of a sleeve based on the pattern piece for View B's sleeve, but will omit the band. No hem band like View D either.

Needless to say I've cut and slashed and taped the pattern pieces so much to accommodate sections of the dress.

Fully lining it with silk lining since it's chiffon and sheer, so it's quite fiddly. No pattern for the lining, so after a lot of thinking, I basted the chiffon to the silk lining and treated them as one. Chiffon is  tough and time consuming. I might have to rethink my initial plan of sewing up all silk chiffons for this sew-a-long. Maybe sew something else after this and then go back to chiffons. We'll see.

Stay tuned. With some luck, I might get to finish the top later today... Man... This post is not that short and sweet is it?