Feather Forecast Blouse

 I'm totally giving in to whole birds/feathers fashion trend (possibly a little late, but whatever). Heck, even Walnut is into feathers, and he's a cat. At any rate, I started small by applique-ing some feathers, cut out from a thrifted blouse, onto a t-shirt. I still had almost an entire blouse left, but I wasn't sure my seamstressing skills were up to refashioning fray-tastic silk yet (my bowhunting skills, on the other had, are level 6, according to my D&D character).

Well, that was almost a year ago. When I saw the Feather or Haute Dress on ModCloth recently, I decided to bite the bullet and take on the blouse. It's a large, shapeless thing with some missing buttons, and luckily for me, no darts! That meant I could actually cut it down however I wanted without worrying about darts ending up in weird places. With One Pearl Button's silk shirt refashion in mind, I began by cutting off the sleeves right at the shoulder seam (fortunately in this case, my shoulders are quite linebackerly and the shoulder actually ended in the right place to make the extended shoulder look I like), then folding them over a couple times and stitching it down. That wasn't too bad, since the silk was already serged there so it didn't fray. But when it came to cutting down the sides and then restitching those, it was definitely a race against the clock to get it basted, stitched, then zigzagged before my entire seam allowance disappeared on me. Someone needs to come up with a half-life for fabrics based on how quickly them fray.

I was originally going to leave it as a collared blouse, but my husband, who knows how much I love Emma Pillsbury's style, sagely suggested that I further alter it by getting rid of the collar and putting a bow on it instead. Thank goodness the sleeves had just enough material for ties. Ahh, much better...less frumpy-lady-on-hot-day, more vintage-inspired chic. I foresee lots more feather goodness in my future!

See the missing sleeve portion where I'd cut out the feathers previously?

This is a much truer representation of the color of the blouse.

 

Walnut noms a feather.