Draping an asymmetric blouse (259 Views)

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  Step 1 of 13

  Take one men's shirt (the bigger the better, because it'll give you extra fabric!) I used one with a back yoke and a collar that doesn't have buttonholes in the collar to attach it to the shirt. Take your seam ripper and carefully take the shirt apart--I left the collar intact, but got the cuffs down to one layer. Also save any buttons you remove.

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  Step 2 of 13

  A lot of this shirt was just pinning and basting it together and then checking for the fit-- it was very trial-and-error. What I did was take the two front pieces (though I put the buttonhole side with the buttonholes towards the side seam), the single-layer cuff pieces (at the shoulders), and the original back (starting from the top where the yoke had been sewn-- I cut a curve for the neckhole) and pinned them together to make a rough shirt front, with the front pieces overlapping to make a V and pinching out/pinning an approximate place for the darts/bustline gathering. I also made sure to fold under a facing for the side of the shirt that had the buttonholes, so it would match the overlapping side. Then I trimmed it off a little longer than where I wanted the waistline to be. For the waistline "belt", I used the back yoke pieces (my shirt had a double layer) and pinned the straight edge to the bottom of the outside front, trimmed it off, and used the rest to do the inside shirt front. (The leftover piece of yoke is used for the same place in the back.)

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  Step 3 of 13

  Here you can see how I cut the back yoke piece to make the actual waist section. The more rectangular piece is the one that will be used. (Make sure it's long enough that you can add seams and the folded under facing!) I tried to line up the stripes on each piece, but no rule saying you have to do that. ;-)

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  Step 4 of 13

  To get the armhole, I just used a well-fitting blouse pattern that I had nearby (I used one from New Look because it was out from my last project, but the Emily blouse would be a great choice too!) The front, back and shoulder pieces are just pinned together here, so I just lined up approximately where the seam would go on the shoulder piece, cut the armhole out, did the same thing with the back pattern piece, flipped them upside down and repeated on the other side.

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  Step 5 of 13

  (To give you an idea of what the armhole would look like. I ended up trimming off that extra-pointy part later when I was sewing it in.)

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  Step 6 of 13

  For the sleeves, I used the same pattern and cut out the simplest short-sleeve they had. I cut this piece from the bottom of the original shirt sleeve--made for a nice detail, since the opening at the bottom of the original sleeve was still intact. (If you want to do this, make sure the button side is closer to what will end up being the front of the sleeve-- and flip the pattern over before you cut out the other sleeve! Otherwise you'll end up with one in the front and one in the back!)

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  Step 7 of 13

  The top of the original sleeve pieces were used to make the lower section of the front. The lower section of the back (not pictured here) is the remaining piece of the original back. This is approximately the look when it's all pinned together.

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  Step 8 of 13

  Now comes the fun part-- actual sewing! Sew the shoulder pieces to the front and back at shoulder seams, and sew the front darts (from side seam-- you might want to baste them first just to check for the placement/size). You'll also need to pinch out and sew darts in the back. When you're satisfied with the front darts, sew fronts and back together at side seams. Then run two rows of basting stitches partway across the bottom of the front, near the bust, and gather it as needed to fit.

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  Step 9 of 13

  A view of the back darts.

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  Step 10 of 13

  To do the bottom portion, undo the basting stitches at the sides a little, enough that you can add the next portion. Then sew on the waistbands, then the lower fronts and back. (Extra on the overlapping edge of the blouse is good, you'll need this for facings.) Then sew the side seams.

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  Step 11 of 13

  After this, the sleeves can be sewn in as for a regular blouse. For the binding on the edge, I took some scrap pieces from what I'd trimmed off before, sewed it to the lower edge of the sleeve with the wider part towards the sleeve, flipped it under, folded the inside edge under, stitched at the edge of the buttoned-down part to make a nice corner, and topstitched around the outside to hold it down.

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  Step 12 of 13

  Now comes the tricky part-- determining where to cut the assymmetric part. Honestly, what I did was put it on, pin the blouse to the fit I wanted, and then run a basting stitch down the edge of the outer facing while I was wearing it to give me an idea! (The orange stitching is what I ended up with, though I cut it straigher than this looks.)

• Step 13 of 13

  (This one is just a placeholder until I take a few more pics...I'll finish as soon as I can, I promise!)