Colorblocking - When Shirts are Too Small

When I was in Korea, I used to go shopping in the underground with my friend Holly. She was always on the look out for a black dress with one big peacock feather across the front of it. When I found this sequined shirt on the dollar rack at Goodwill, I bought it because it reminded me of her, even though it's about forty sizes too small. Okay, so I can manage to squeeze it on, but. . .it ain't pretty!

I keep just about all my salvageable scraps from other projects, and below are some sleeves that I cut off another dress in order to make it sleeveless. I decided these would help me to fix my shirt by the method of color blocking. I thought about using another color, but because the peacock feather is such a feature, I decided a monotone blocking would be best.

I laid them on top. You can start to see how I would use them to fill out the sides of my shirt.

I put them behind the shirt to give you a better idea.

First, I cut the side seams almost all the way to the armpits.

Then, I cut the sleeves till they were the right size to sew into the sides of the shirt.

I pinned them all together and sewed them up.

This is the finished shirt.

Well, really this is the finished shirt. I tried on the one above and the hips were way too roomy, so I took them in about an inch.

It's a little dark, but you get the idea. Never let size be an obstacle to buying a shirt you like! You can always color block it!

The End!