Thrifted top made a size bigger

Last December at a Sinterklaas party, one of my colleagues gave me a thrifted top, hidden in a cardboard sewing machine. Ok, if you're not familiar with Sinterklaas, that may sounds a little strange to you. So let me explain the concept of Sinterklaas. This Dutch holiday, named after a saint patron, is originally a feast for children involving lots of pepernoten (small gingerbread cookies) and presents. Adults, once they've stopped believing in Sinterklaas, give each other surprise gifts (hence the selfmade sewing machine) with a small present hidden inside. This is usually accompanied by a teasing poem in which you can let some of your frustrations out, as long as you stay nice and rhyme. 

The thrifted top and selfmade sewing machine definitely proved that my colleague knew me well. Unfortunately, she got the size wrong, it was an S and too tight. It's not difficult to see on the taylor's dummy, set at my size. So I decided to enlarge the top a size by making a new back piece. None of my fabric scraps were big enough or the right colour, so I decided to combine 2 scraps. Some blue lace fabric and scraps of an old shirt from my other half D. They matched the front piece very well, I must say(picture left)!

There were 2 ways I could easily create more width. The first was to place the original top a little from the fabric fold before I copied the pattern on the blue lace It would enlarge the neckline at the back but that wasn't going to be a problem since the front piece had a cowl neck. The front neckline would only be a little higher. Secondly, I measured a little extra under the armpit for the bust width.

The result:

Hope you enjoyed this small refashion. I'm so curious to know what my colleague thinks of it! For know, I'm going outside to enjoy the beautiful weather (mind you, it's May and the first day over 18 degrees this year!!!).

You are very welcome to check out vermaakster.blogspot.com for more details and, as always, a step by step explanation in Dutch and English.