Afternoon Blouse Pattern Hack - Adding Waist Ties

So, you want to make an Afternoon Blouse, but you have one problem - you're never going to wear it tucked in so you'd like it to be a little more fitted.

While you could easily grade it in a size (or two) at the waist, have you ever thought about adding in waist ties?

Adding waist ties to your Afternoon Blouse (or any top for that matter!) is easy, cute, and has the added bonus of you being able to let them out a little after lunch time, while still looking chic!

Supplies:

• The Afternoon Blouse Pattern
• Fashion Fabric
• Ruler
• Paper + pen
• Scissors
• Interfacing (optional)

Steps:

1. First up you'll need to decide how long and how wide you want your waist ties to be. Once sewn up, mine are 70cm (27.5") long and 4cm (1.5") wide. Once you've decided on these measurements, you'll need to add on your seam allowance (I used 1cm (3/8")). So my rectangle pattern measures 71cm long and 10cm wide total (the width is doubled since it's folded over).

2. Draft up your rectangle pattern onto paper, then using that pattern, cut out 2 waist ties from your chosen fabric.

Optional Step - if you want your waist ties to have some extra body, add interfacing to the wrong side of each one before continuing.

3. Fold in half length-wise, right-sides together and press.

4. Feel free to leave the ends of your waist ties square, but I decided to make my waist ties with an angled tip. To do this, cut off a triangle at the end, angling out from the raw edge of your waist tie towards the tip. How sharp you want your tip is entirely up to you!

5. Starting at one end, leaving the shorter edge open, stitch raw edges together.

6. Trim seam allowance and corners

7. Turn waist tie right-side out and press.

8. Repeat with other waist tie.

9. Sew up your Afternoon Blouse as per the instructions until you get to the step where you sew up the sides. Locate where your waist sits on the side of the blouse and pin waist tie to the right-side of the front bodice, matching up raw edges.

Note - if you've angled your tips, make sure the longer end is on top, as per the photo below.

10. Baste in place into the seam allowance. Repeat for other side making sure waist ties are matching up.

11. Sandwich your waist ties in between your front and back bodice, being careful not to catch the loose ends of your waist ties in your side seam, sew up your side seams and finish the blouse as per the instructions.

Ta da! One cute Afternoon Blouse with waist ties coming up!

xx

J