Sleeves Needed: A Peasant Top

Approximately 90% of my summer shirts are sleeveless. That's just what I'm most comfortable in all summer long. Occasionally, however, the need for sleeves arises. For example, the dress code at the place I volunteer, it requires sleeves. That was easy enough while it was chilly outside, but now that it's warm? Not so much. A few summer shirts with sleeves were needed, so to my refashion bin I went.

This peasant top caught my attention. Given to me by a friend, it was several sizes too big and rather unflattering. The elastic hem was especially annoying as it liked to ride up. The shirt needed help, but how could I make it more "me"?

A couple Pinterest searches for "peasant top refashion" turned up almost nothing useful. Lots of how to turn something else into a peasant top but no how to turn a peasant top into something else. Hmm, that was annoying.

A few of the "refashioned into a peasant top" pins were rather cute, however, so I took my inspiration where I could find it and got started. First that annoying elastic hem was chopped off, then the sleeves were partially removed with a seam ripper and the sides were taken way in.

Once the sides were taken in it was time to reattach the sleeves, as they were pretty much the entire point of this refashion after all. I played around with a few different ideas and finally settled on this.

I just pleated the extra fabric into the armholes and hemmed the sleeves edges. This gave me butterfly-like sleeves. Once the sleeves were sewn back on, I hemmed the shirt and added the finishing touch. 

I trimmed off part of the original elastic neckline and added some pink bias tape for some extra stability and embellishment.

There, all done. Cool and comfortable with sleeves! Perfect for everyday stuff like milking goats and playing with kids.

No complaints about how this refashion turned out! The peasant top went from "maybe I'll wear that someday. . .or not. . ." to a favorite shirt. Turns out sleeves are very useful in preventing sunburn, and if they're light and flow-y enough they don't add any extra warmth.

I might just have to do some more digging in my refashion bin in order to investigate this sleeve thing farther. 

So, off to do that I go!