I Was Inspired to Make This!

~ Yes, I do declare ~

I know, I know, it's hard to believe, but I've got the pictures to prove it.  I swear I never would've thought to wear my bloomers under my too-big-for-me-now jeans.  Never.

~ starting bottoms up ~

Worn with my pink Frye boots from ebay, my Mom's old kitchen curtains turned bloomers from long ago, those ancient blue jeans, and a long tank top made out of stretch mesh. 

~ this is it! ~

I only needed a light-weight, vintage looking fabric for the making of a shirt-dress/ duster to complete my sartorial splendor.  And I found this cotton voile with meandering embroidered flowers in white, pale blue to gray and faded black thread at Fabric Mart.    Perfect!  (It's no longer there).

I finally selected McCall's 7472 pattern and then changed it up quite a bit when I found I chose too small a size.  geez.  I had wanted something I could wear over things.

You know how it goes, in making changes, one thing leads to another, and another...

If you want to see more, plus the original inspiration photos, continue after the break.

 For instance, I didn't like the straight up and down, boring look of the back, so:

• I cut a slit up the center back to add a triangular panel.  

~ see here ~

• Somehow the shoulders became too wide, so I made a small pleat at the center back at the collar joint.  I thought it worked swell with the triangular insert.  

• It just needed a little something at their meeting point.  A circular cut-out of fabric with an embroidered flower on top did the trick.

~ ahh, there it is ~

• I inserted 2" wide strips of fabric down both side seams.  Later, I camouflaged them with 2" wide lace.

~ voila ~

• This made seam binding a necessity to bring the once adjoining side seams closer together. 

~ more and more ~

• Then seam binding was needed for the entire hem, rather than the suggested fold-up-and-hem.  I used self-made binding from the fabric.

• Did I mention how I screwed up the placement of all my buttonholes? (too close to the edge).  Which meant the buttons also had to be placed too close to the edge to work right.   (What a look!) 

• After a rejuvenating nap, I thought of putting a strip of lace on each side of the button facing in an attempt to remedy the imbalance.  A bit better.

Here's what started me off:  Those Posing Girls from Magnolia Pearl.  Yep, I cannot even call this Lounge Wear like my previous post, and certainly not Resort Wear like the post before that.

 Dear Readers, whatever shall I call this?  

(Boho and Shabby Chic are automatically disqualified.)

Well, now I can see my clothes need to be much baggier (or I need to be less so) to get the full effect.  Oh, and I forgot my hat!  Dear me, I was being inspired, not copycatting. hrumph.


Meanwhile, I'll be linking up with Patti at Not Dead Yet Style, Catherine at I Will Wear What I Like and Cherie at Shoe & Tell when they all go live.