Pink silk ........?

after - work in progress

before

My #needleworkmonday efforts were somewhat scuppered this week by the weather: we've been inundated with it, following the breaking of the drought! Now high winds, rain and extreme temperature drops appear to be the norm - and our very basic living conditions here make it rather difficult to get on with sewing....

However, I've got at least one nice transformation project underway: a beautiful pale pink silk kind-of-tunic, which I got on a rare visit back to my old 50c stall treasure trove in Telese Terme, Campania (Italy). Silks are a 'consistently rare' kind of a find on that stall, and this piece jumped put at me purely for the - raw silk - fabric, rather than any practical aspect like size and/ or shape!

after

I saw that it might make itself more my size, style and fit, I cut the sleeves off, and used them to widen it a bit; the tunic couldn't get over the shoulders of my mannequin, to start with (which is roughly my size).

Jumping right in, over a cup of milky barley 'coffee' with @vincentnijman and our First Ever Guest on our land (who came to lend us a ladder: woohoo!), I cut off the sleeves, leaving a short seam-allowance to tuck under.

Then I looked at how to open up or change the side seams. They actually appeared to have a good inch of spare material - what a boon 🥳🤗⭐ This meant that I have slightly more material than anticipated, to work with.

I cut off the cuffs of the sleeves, and fixed them to the bottom of the tunic front. Then folded some of the remaining sleeve material a couple of times, before pinning it to the back of the tunic.

This gives the whole piece a bit more substance and length. The afore-mentioned extra inch at the sides, I also opened up. My final step - when daylight and dryness returns - will be to somehow use the last of the sleeve scraps to widen the new 'blousey-dress' further.

If I can't do this, maybe I'll have to use a contrasting material (or similar texture of silk, at least) to widen the garment further - or maybe a button and opening, somewhere on it?

What do you think might be a best solution?

So, a short post until we have the powerbank charged again, so I can use my old-school sewing machine for all these pieces that are pinned and waiting ⛺ And in the meantime, it's hot water bottles and duvets and futon mattresses in the tent! ⛺

Sending love and happy sewing to all!