Retro upcycling: stash skirt to top

 

Today's project is a quick refashion -- well, sewing it up was quick, although it's been cut and in my to-sew pile for months! I had a gathered skirt that I'd bought at a thrift store YEARS ago, because I loved the fabric. But it didn't fit and the style was just too old-fashioned. So I took the waistband off, and the gathered skirt turned out to be quite a large rectangle of this lovely drapy paisley print. But even a large skirt doesn't have tons of fabric, so a sleek top it would have to be.

I had this McCalls 4632 from 1989 in the stash, and thought that View F, the sleeveless one in blue, would be perfect. I was able to fit this onto the fabric neatly, cutting the hem of the top on the hem of the skirt, so that I didn't have to redo the hem but could use the pretty ribbon-edged one that already existed. This also made the project faster. 

Putting it together was fairly easy, with a couple of adjustments for my precut pieces. I sewed up the gathers and shoulder seams, then moved on to the facings. Because the front neckline is so closely fitted, there is a slash opening in the back and there are supposed to be a couple of buttons with thread loops. I was able to find an appropriate button in my stash, after auditioning about 6 varieties. They not only had to be smallish shank buttons which matched the fabric, I had to be sure they were very lightweight as well, since this fabric is very drapy and soft. I finally went with one button only, because I had this perfect choice but only one of them! 

Then it was a simple double fold hem on the sleeve openings, and I just double folded the side seam in the hem allowance and hand tacked it down, to keep things neat and tidy. And that's it! This pattern calls for shoulder pads, which I always leave out, but the fit of this one might just need some small ones. I'm thinking of adding in some 1/4" shoulder pads to hold the sleeve out a bit -- I think it'll show off the shoulder gathers a little better. 

This one is quite long, so looks much better tucked in, I think. Because it's just a geometric shape with no darts I think I could probably even wear it backwards if I wanted a front neckline slash tunic, though ;) I enjoyed this quick refashion and am happy to save this silky fabric and make into something wearable once more.