Re-purposing a purple skirt into a folk shirt (instructions added)

 

 Last night my  friend JoDee  stopped by and gave me a crocheted purple skirt.

I like the color and I like crochet but for some reason I did not like the two together in this item but her statement when she gave it to me made me happy.  She said she was going to take it to the thrift store unless I wanted it because she knew I liked to remake things.  So my kids and I frogged the skirt and got 4 large balls of lace weight ( size 0) yarn I will use for knitting.
 

Then I cut up the gauze slip that was part of the skirt.  You can see it in the back of the photo of the balls of yarn before cutting and below after I cut it up.


Made two sleeves and a bodice.  Added two different lace pieces to the blouse.

 The neckline I used all of that piece of lace  (which another friend had given me) and the hem and sleeves I still have a tiny bit of that one left which was actually removed from another item that was re-purposed long ago.

I also added elastic to the neck and sleeves.  Now I think it is a pretty cute little summer top of course in my family something will have to be worn under it but I like it all the same or I may put it in the shop for sale it is a small adult size like a teenager who would wear about a 1 to a size 7 top.  If interested let me know and I will add it to the shop before my kids claim it. Has sort of has a Central to South American feel to it now.  If I owned a machine that could do fancy embroidery I would have embroidered a pretty folk design on the blouse.  But since I do not and can not afford one guess that will not be happening but I like it all the same anyway.

quickly what I did

1. cut  a strip 7 inches long by the width of the skirt ( now two pieces of fabric. Leaving the already finished hem at the bottom of the skirt for hem of shirt ( was not sure if I was adding lace to the hem at this point)
2. cut that in half   see photo ( now 3 pieces of fabric)
3. cut open the side seams of the large piece of fabric just 7 inches down leave rest already sewn
4. added very wide lace to both small rectangles for sleeves
5. added lace to hem of blouse decided I wanted a longer shirt
6. sew up seam for under arm seam leaving 7 inches open at the top of seam for insetting
7. set in both sleeves to large piece where you cut the 7 inch slit
8. I serged the neckline you do not have to but with such thin fabric i thought it best to give it strength
9.  added lace on top of neck line 
10. I used my elastic zip zag stitch on my machine and zig zagged a 30 inch piece of elastic to the back side of the neckline divided the elastic into 4 sections and divided them evenly around neck pinning center front and back and center sleeve ( stretch elastic while sewing in place gathers evenly this way all the way around)
11. took a piece of elastic laid it around my bicep cut to exact measurement of arm
12. wove into lace edge of sleeve sewed two ends together overlapped 1/2 inch sewed under the arm at seam to make it hide repeat for other sleeve 
13. all done took me about 15 mins from start to finish no pattern needed if you have more or less fabric it will either be fuller or less full either way still works great

Update: my middle daughter claimed it now she has gone through some of my thrift fabric stash and found a valance she wants me to make into another she loves folk style shirts and they always cost so much.  So to her this was like magic now she can have lots of her favorite style shirt.   I will post the Valance one tomorrow.  All my thrift finds now may be in danger of my daughter claiming them.