Unused to useful

There has been a cheap, flimsy bed skirt kicking around my house for 7 years.  Yes, 7 years.  The "bed in a bag" set was a gift for Jaala and Leishabeth's room when I was still a single mom, living in a ghetto apartment.  I never used the thing, and I am not sure how it squeezed by the "moving purge" we made 5 years ago, when we moved to suburbia.
Regardless, I looked at it last week and I needed something to occupy my hands while I was too sick to be up and around.  I decided to unpick the seams of the bed skirt *when I needed a break from crocheting* and from it, I had a 23 inch wide strip of light weight fabric...PRE-hemmed with serged edges.

What to do with it. 

It sat here for a few days until I remembered I had a pattern in my stash which directed the shirt front be cut in two separate panels and was sized down to a ladies 6.
New Look 6809



Knowing from using other New Look patterns that they tend to fit a bit small, I knew the blouse in a size 6 would fit Jaala.

Here is Jaala cooperating for THREE! Count them!  Three photo's wearing the shirt.

she and I will talk about bra strap issues, another time.

bias tape ties

the eyelet cut-outs coordinate with the print of the shirt.

Nice.
I did have to make a couple of alterations to the pattern pieces, first to scoop out the arm hole a bit and extend the hem for my tall girl.  Then, the back piece was to be cut on a fold, however, since I was working with a narrow fabric, I simply cut two separate halves in a "fussy cut" to match the print, and added room for a seam allowance.  I also cut the pattern on a size 8 so I would have room to finish the seams french style. The only seams which are exposed on this blouse, are the sleeve seams. 

I had Jaala pick the lace from my stash to finish the arm hem, she choose a lovely, white cotton eyelet lace.  Love it and it looks phenomenal with the blouse.
The blouse asks for ties, but I HATE making ties!! Hate.  So I'll share my cheater, peter trick with you....prefolded bias tape.  Yes.  You can buy a variety of widths of it, I just choose the width based on the size of the casing instructed AND the style of the blouse.  You can choose a contrast or matchy match colour and use it as a style element to your piece.
I'm SO lazy, I don't even sew the edges together down the entire tie, I thread the bias tape through the casing,  even it up so the same amount is sticking out of both sides.  Then I scrunch the article and pull the ties out as far as they'll pull, leaving the article bunched up in the centre of two long ends of the tie....then I edge stitch up the tie to the place I estimate will not protrude from the casing when the article is worn.
Make sense?
Quick and dirty.
 I made the job of sewing up the shirt even easier by utilizing the already finished hems of my fabric.