Valance to folk shirt how to

So as I said yesterday in the update my middle daughter got excited to go through my thrift shop stash of fabric.  I like to buy curtains and such that have pretty details to use as accents on costumes.  She found this single valance that was 14 inches by 56 inches.  Since there is a dance tonight with a red white and pink theme Valentine's I would guess yep you can guess it she wanted it made.  I told her she wanted a shirt she had to help dismantle in this case we are dismantling more than we did for the other one as it is going to need the seem allowances in the valance for the length and width of the shirt.

Warning this post is photo heavy

After ripping out all the seams and cutting it in half she now has two pieces of fabric that are 20 by 29.5 inches.  As you can see a lot of fabric in the seams to make the curtain rod slot and hem.  She gained 6 inches for the length of her blouse.  We could have cut nice little angles  for the arms in the fabric you are welcome too but I like having the extra fabric in there to make it more billowy.

Because I have some ( a tiny bit) of red 100% cotton vintage lace I decided to add that to the two pieces of the valance to make it even a little longer I pinned then surged in place thus finishing the raw edges and makes for a nice seem to flip to the back that I can top stitch over to hold down.



This is where we have to change a lot from the other item as this is only truly enough fabric the front and back of the blouse (for teen/adult size for a baby/toddler I would have cut differently and would have had enough to make a summer dress.  The joys of children growing up the things you learn you can use at one point and not another.

Wish we had found two valances but we didn't.  So we had to find something else for the sleeves

I was trying to keep the flower look of the valance embroidery when I picked the lace with flower details same is true for the fabric for the sleeves. I picked red and white fabric with flower details.

I cut a slip 11.5 inches wide by the width of the fabric 44 inches.  Then on the length I  sewed more lace.  Then cut the whole thing in half so I have two pieces that are 11 by 22  I did not worry about removing the salvage as I know it will get cut off when I serge that seam but you are welcome to cut it off.

Pin in place on the front and back of the blouse sew 8 inches down leaving the ends open see photos.  Then sew up side seams making sure to match up lace edges under arm point and lace edges again.

I had a tiny bit of lace left about 3 inches shorter than the width of the neck but since the item is going to be gathered any way.  I just pinned it so that the fabric and the lace where each divided into four equal sections.

 

Then when sewing held the lace firm so that the feed dogs could pull in the excess fabric and make them fit together.

 
Next I cut two pieces of elastic 11 inches long the diameter of my bicep did the same to the sleeve as I did the lace.  Divided both sleeves and elastic into four equal parts and pined in place.  Then when sewing used feed dogs to pull in and stretched the elastic to make it all fit and gather nicely.

I went back to the neck area  folded over 3/4 of an inch of fabric an made a casing sewed it and laced in 24 inches of small elastic sewed ends together and shut opening.

 

I put it on my dress form and decided  I wanted am empire waist so I sewed twill tape under the bust to make a casing and added elastic.   I like it much better that way.  Still not fond of the back yet but I am all finished or so I thought.

After my daughter tried it on she decided she wanted the back pleated I said I was done with it and she would have to do that her self.  So she placed it on the dress form and went to work changing the back to something she liked more.

Overall she likes the hang of the purple one more but the details on the red and white one the best.  I have not taken a photo of the new back pleats she added.  When she is done ironing it I will post that too as an

update to this post.
Here are the other photos of what my daughter did to the back of the blouse.  My littlest daughter wanted this shirt too.  Since my middle daughter already had the purple one after she added her mods to it she gave it to her younger sister such nice kids to share.