Peasant Top Refashion

I have a disease. It's called "BWITA." 

For those of you unfamiliar with it, it stands for: 

BUYING WITH INTENT TO ALTER.

{har har.}

Getting into sewing has really changed the way I look at clothes in the store. Granted, its taken me a while to  learn how to put on my "lets-not-look-at-this-as-it-is-but-think-about-what-i-could-do-with-it" glasses, but I'm getting there.

The other day, I brought home this comfy top-

It was on sale, I liked it, but I didn't love it. BUT. I knew I had the potential to love it.

Its hard to tell in the pictures, but the neckline is REALLY wide. It was a balancing act to just keep it on my shoulders. So first things first, I came up with a way to take it in. 

I put on the shirt and pinned the neckline how much I wanted it taken in.

Then I created a box pleat out of the section I had pinned by flattening it and sewing it down.

The sleeves were next on the list. They were also wide and loose, and sorta made me feel like a bird flapping its wings every time I moved my arms. 

I cut off the lace on the ends of the sleeves and used it to tie a bow.

I turned the raw edges of the sleeves under and gathered them using a basting stitch. I gathered to just wider than the largest part of my arm, so that I could still slip them on and off. I sewed down the gathering using a zig-zag stitch for a little bit of stretch. 

You could also use elastic thread to gather the sleeves, but I seem to have bad luck with it. 

I took the bow I had made from the sleeve lace and pinned it on the neckline, right over my box pleat,{i am loving all the bows this season!} and hand-stitched it down.

Lastly, I took in the sides of the shirt just a tad. 

And voila!

It went from a top that I liked....to a top that I LOVE.

{p.s.-can you tell i'm too lazy to get out my tripod?}

{p.p.s.-i got a haircut. just so you know.}