I’ve not had anything like enough time to spend dressmaking this summer, but I have been doing a bit of refashioning.
I fell for this blouse in my local charity shop because of the print (which happens to match my current favourite socks) but it was actually 2 sizes too small. I am not defeated by such a minor thing as not fitting! It was from a really cheap shop in the first place, so I probably paid as much in the charity shop as it cost new. Plus it took a few hours to restyle it, so its hardly a great economy, but I still have a huge sense of achievement and have worn it loads. Too much probably. Eventually I’ll complete my orange knitted cardigan to go with it. The cardigan never ends and I’m heartily sick of it, but stubborn enough to want to finish it. Only the sleeves left now, so I’m almost on the home-straight.

So anyway, that blouse enlarging….
Despite being smock-shaped, this blouse was too narrow across the upper chest. I decided to put a panel in all the way up from the hem to the cuffs. Typically, in my studio of a million miles of fabric, I hadn’t got any brown cotton. Nope, not a bit. I had to use silk crepe de chine, which was NOT an ideal choice. But it does mean I have silky underarm stripes now.

So I opened the seam and inserted the strip, making a pleat at the cuff.

Then I realised the cuffs were too tight, so I took them off and hemmed the sleeves, thereby defeating the object of making the really fiddly pleat. Oh well. It still works better with the pleat than it would have without. I keep meaning to change the buttons, but buttons live at the studio and this was done at home. I probably don’t have the right buttons anyway, despite having hundreds.

Next on the list is this:

Followed by this:

What a fabulous print!

There is a red-aqua theme here which I hadn’t even noticed before. How nice! The top one is a really dodgy shape. Or rather, shape-less, so it needs taking in. Again its a cheap-shop thing via the charity shop, but the print is what drew me. The red one is a Boden blouse – much better quality than I usually get around here – and is also two sizes too big.
I have had some amazingly good quality charity shop finds recently, after months of nothing but Primark rejects. A couple of weeks ago I got two cashmere jumpers (one M&S Autograph) for felting and skirts from Coast and Jigsaw (now refurbished into book projects) and two charcoal wool LK Bennett and Nicole Farhi skirts (one destined for embellishment and one just perfect as it is). I’m sure next time it will be nothing but Asda polyester nasties.