From too big to too hot!

Ok, so I'm a dork, and that title is evidence of the fact ;) But I have to say that I was pretty pleased with myself when my vision for this top not only worked out, but turned out to be better than I thought it could be. It's not perfect, but I'm cool with that, cause I did it myself :-D

Here's a before of the top...

I loved the pattern, but alas, way too big!

And here's the after!

Ha! I still haven't worked out my model face yet...;) But I'm in love with the outcome!

Here's what I did...I started by gauging how much to take in at the waist. I machine stitched it temporarily where I had pinned it at the waist so that I could then work out how much of the sleeves and excess fabric to cut off. I essentially eyeballed it (sorry, not a precise, pattern type here). I measured down the sleeve on each side, marked where I wanted it to end up and then cut the excess from that point, down to the temporary waist markers, and then ran it through my machine to close up the sides, leaving armholes. 

Once I'd worked out the correct shape and had finished off the sleeves (simply rolled the edges over twice and stitched them up!) I started seam ripping the extra fabric I'd cut off. The sleeves had originally had the same edging as the bottom of the top, so I used that as the bottom border, using the main patterned fabric as a band running between the 2 striped bands. It just worked out that I had enough of each to match the circumference of the bottom of the top, adding just the right amount of length to make it a dress. I top stitched each panel on and then hemmed the bottom of the dress to complete! 

As I mentioned before, it is by no means perfect, but as a beginner, I'm pretty stoked with how it turned out. Bit by bit I'm learning more about finishing and the ins and outs of my machine, so hopefully, I'll see improvement as I continue to refashion/upcycle :) Hope you enjoy this one, and that I didn't confuse you completely! Peace

Andrea

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