Sunday Sew-Day: Ruffled Blouse

This top was among my loot from last month's clothes swap. The too-short sleeves and poofy shoulder give it a more... mature appearance.

Plus, it was missing three buttons, and the seams were coming undone in a few places.

But I liked the teal and black stripes and the ruffles, and I've been trying to build up a more professional-looking wardrobe.So it came home with me!

Removing the sleeves will fix the first two issues.

Then I re-sewed a few seams that had come undone.

I cut two strips from one of the sleeves, about 1.5 inches wide and 22 inches long. I pinned each of them to the armholes, with right-sides facing, and sewed all around.

I pressed the binding outward.

Next I folded it over toward the inside of the blouse and sewed it in place.

And finally, I plucked off the remaining buttons and stitched on six matching black buttons from my enormous stash.

I was so excited about having a dressier blouse that it didn't occur to me - until I was trying to put together an outfit - that I don't have a single black skirt or slacks.

I had to settle for khaki, and these have their own textured stripes, which is just too much with the stripes on the shirt.

Looks like a classic black pencil skirt might be the next thing on my To Do list!