An emerald in the rough...

In typical Andrea fashion, I have forgotten to take the before shot of this top that I found in my local church thrift store. I pieced together a "before-ish" shot just to give you an idea of what it looked like :)

I slipped one of the sleeves back on, but both the bodice and the sleeve have already been taken in...at first, I thought I might keep the sleeves, but in the end, decided no.

The front of this top has these darts that shape the waistline which turn into pleats to give a certain amount of blousing in the bust area...great for us smaller chested women! However, the darts ended far too low and the blousing was a bit too much to begin with, so I simply continued to sew up the same line as each of the darts another 2 inches, thus raising the waistline to my narrowest part. I had to take in the sides a bit for more shaping, then finished off the arm holes with a bit of cotton lace that is only visible from the inside (finally getting to making the inside as pretty as the outside). Et voila!

I love the final product!

The deep emerald color, unfortunately, is not reflected in these photos, but believe me, it is gorgeous! And the button up back...one of my favorite details in a top currently ;) Just popped on a sunny yellow belt for another splash of color and along with some skinnies this makes a lovely spring ensemble...gotta throw on a cardi if I venture out though, still not quite warm enough to go sleeveless.

Hope all of you continue to gain refashion inspiration as you check out the great work that my fellow posters throw up here, I know I've seen a few things I might just have to copycat soon :) Again, thanks for reading...

Peace

Andrea

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