Purple Blouse To Embellished Jacket
This project started out as a blouse I picked up at a local resale shop. I really love the style and deep plum color of this blouse, especially the iridescent colors it reflects under different lighting. And as interesting as this fabric is, the iridescence made it difficult to capture the deep plum color in the photographs below, but the true plum color is visible in the silky threading of the beaded trim.
What gave me the idea to embellish this blouse, and perhaps convert it to an evening jacket, was that the fabric color was a perfect match for a great trim I had bought months ago at a clearance sale. I’m a big fan of sparkly beaded trim embellishments and this beautiful trim happened to be such a bargain. It was so amazing to have found a trim and (months later) a blouse that matched so perfectly in this shade of deep plum purple.
I measured the blouse and trim, and was glad that there was more than enough trim to not only complete this project, but to sew onto both cuffs as well. To prepare the blouse, I washed and ironed it, removed all of the buttons (but not the cuff buttons). I then pinned down the collar to the inside of the blouse leaving just a half inch of the collar showing above the collar line. I then started hand sewing the pinned down fabric flat to the neckline.
Because the trim was ten yards long, it was heavy and bulky, so I decided to first pin it onto the blouse. I pinned one trim end to the front left edge of the opening up towards the collar, around the neckline, and then back down the front right edge of the opening (over the area where the buttons used to be). Once the entire trim was pinned in place, I cut the trim away from the edge end. Then I started hand sewing the trim to the blouse (which took me three evenings).
This was a simple and inexpensive project to do. I enjoyed working on this project and am very happy with the results. It’s amazing how a pretty trim converted the look of a blouse into a jacket.
Adding Trim To Jacket
Finished Purple Jacket