Bodysuit or blouse?
Continuing with this week’s theme, which unintentionally seems to be “shocking pink items I found at Vinnies“, I’ve reworked some sleeves on this bodysuit (yes, it is a bodysuit! I’ve never worn one but they’re surprisingly practical. ’80s fashion isn’t all bad!). Here’s the “before” shot – nothing particularly hideous about this, but being slightly height-challenged as I am, this particular sleeve length isn’t so flattering.
I decided a shorter sleeve would look better, so tried on the bodysuit and marked where I wanted the sleeves to end. Then I chopped them off and ran some gathering stitches around the raw sleeve edges.
(If you’re following along at home, don’t forget to stitch over the seams that you’ve chopped because otherwise the stitches will start to come out!)
I cut off the original sleeve edges to create some binding.
After unpicking the edges, it’s basically like strips of bias binding.
I sewed the ends together to form the bands for the sleeves…
A fair bit of ironing went on in between these steps to make sure the binding remained flat. I then pinned the bindings to the sleeve edges, pulling up the gathering to fit the bands.
Then I stitched one edge of the binding to each sleeve, turned it over the seam and topstitched it.
Here’s how the blouse looks now.
Not so different, but better, don’t you think (or is that just because I’ve added some accessories and heels to my original look!?)?
I’m still a bit iffy about whether to change the buttons, but one thing at a time, hey?