During the month of July, the British Heart Foundation are running a fun challenge where you can pop over to your local BHF shop, purchase an item of clothing, therefore supporting their charity, and then have a bit of fun altering it and adding your own fashion flair to it!
Off I went to my local BHF shop in Silver Street, Leicester, and selected a white top with black spots for the bargain price of £2.79.
After running it through the wash, I took a good look at it and decided what I wanted to do.
I knew I needed to take it in at the sides, shorten the sleeves, and maybe take a strip from around the bottom and gather it before sewing it back on. I also knew that I wanted to use some pretty floral bias tape from my sewing stash that I had made some time ago.
First things first, and this was brutal, was to work out how much I needed to take in from the sides and pin and mark it and simply cut the excess away! I also measured how much I wanted to take off the length of the sleeves and cut those to length too. At the same time I removed a strip from around the bottom edge and gave that the chop too!
After all that cutting, I re-pinned the side seams and simply sewed them back together again. It really was that easy.
I did not need the sleeve or side seam offcuts, so these were discarded.
Next task was to overlock the bottom edge of the top. I also overlocked was the raw edge of the band that I had cut from around the bottom. Because the top was now a little narrower, this gave me a little length in this strip to gather it slightly and re-attach it, making a gentle ruffle around the bottom edge.
Finally, to finish off the neckline, I chose to edge it with some pink floral bias tape. I made this using scrap fabric from my stash using this tutorial.
Whilst I was at it, I thought I might as well edge the sleeves with the bias tape too!
Simple, quick and easy, the whole thing took me about 45 mins.
This has been a fun way of taking a pre-loved item and making it your own. I am pleased that a top that I would have previously passed by, is now something that I can reach for and feel confident in.
Have you taken part in the #TheBigStitch challenge? Or perhaps re-fashioned an old item of clothing?
As always it would be lovely to hear from you.
Take care, I’ll be back soon,
Kathy x
Beautiful redo.
Thank you, Peggy! x