The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley – Robert Burns

Oy, it’s been quite a week around here. Haven’t seen any posts on the ol’ blog? Oh, well, let me tell you how it’s gone down.

Bunco. You know how excited I was – and how I was hoping to win big. Well, got there, helped get set up, had dinner, people started arriving, everything hunky-dorey. Then, BAM! Stomach virus hit. In less than 5 minutes I went from absolutely fine, chatting, laughing to…well, I’ll spare you the details, but let’s just say LESS than fine. I bolted from the restaurant and spent the rest of the night sick.

And remember how I said I was hoping to catch a nap or two over the weekend? Thanks to said stomach virus, I spent all of Saturday napping, being awake for no more than 15 minutes at a go. Then, I kid you not, I slept 12 hours Saturday night. Twelve! I haven’t had that much sleep in YEARS! (Mamas out there, you hear me, right?)

And then, even though I was technically back in the land of the living, it took a few more days to actually feel normal. I mean, I just had my first cup of coffee Wednesday morning. But I was normal, so I started a project. And as you will see, I hit a few snags (surprise, surprise), so I decided I would finish it up on Thursday.

What I had failed to remember is that our power was scheduled to be out all day Thursday for repair work. You know what you need to run a sewing machine, a wireless router, and a computer for any length of time? Ding, ding, ding! Electricity.

But “it’s Friday, you ain’t got no job….” Wait, is it okay to quote Robert Burns and Friday in the same post? No matter. It’s Friday! And this project is finished!

So, at risk of convincing you more that I’m a clothes hoarder, I’ll tell you I’ve had this shirt for a long time. Like, since the summer I got married. Which was 1998. I KNOW! I had two of these shirts, a white one and a blue one, and I remember wearing them to several pre-wedding functions – a casual shower, running errands around town, meeting with the wedding coordinator. I’ve hung onto it because I’m a sucker for eyelet – it’s my country roots, I suppose.

So when I realized this shirt was WAY to short too actually wear any more (probably the following summer), I bought some eyelet ruffles and added a little hem at the bottom (which you can see in the second photo). Cute. But when I had yards of ruffles left over, I decided to cover the entire shirt in ruffles.

I started by measuring the circumference of the shirt, adding a couple of inches for a hem allowance, and cutting out strips of ruffles.

I ironed the ruffles, pressed and pinned a hem on each side, and stitched them up.

Then, measuring from the bottom hem of the original shirt (just above the first ruffle I added previously), I marked 2 3/4″ up with chalk.

I marked it all way around the circumference of the shirt, and I pinned the ruffle into place on the chalk mark.

I sewed the ruffle down and repeated until I had added 3 rows of ruffles.

Cute, but when I tried it on, it was still a little short. (I’m kind of long-waisted.)

And I didn’t love the way it looked at the neckline. It needed another ruffle there, too.

In order to add another ruffle to the bottom hem, I would need to lengthen the blouse. I went to my scrap pile and found some leftover white sheets (the ones I use to make patterns). I ripped a strip of fabric about 6 inches wide.

I ironed and pinned the edges to create a hem on either side of the strip.

Then I attached another ruffle to that strip of fabric.

After sewing the ruffle down, I marked 3 inches up from the ruffle seam with chalk, cut the fabric about 1/2″ above the chalk, and pinned the fabric to the original hem of the blouse. Then I sewed the fabric strip down to the blouse. I used a zigzag stitch to keep the edge from unraveling.

Next was the hardest part – attaching a ruffle to the neckline. If the blouse were cut straight across, it would have been easy, but the arm openings dip down. I pinned the ruffle along the neckline

and then I folded the ruffle over the arm openings on either side and pinned. I worked and worked to get it as flat as possible, but it’s not perfect. I pressed it down and stitched the ruffle into place.

So much better – a great length and ruffled from top to bottom.

Perfect! Exactly as I was imagining it. Except it’s very breezy and in the mid-50s today, so not really white eyelet weather yet. Won’t be long!

I paired it with a little pink and red in honor of Valentine’s Day next week. Have you made your plans yet?? I’ve got valentines to help The Boy make and a birthday party to plan. (Valentine’s Day is Husband’s birthday.)

This time, I’m just not going to tell you when I’m going to post again, because every time I do, something comes up, usually something big, like illness. I feel jinxed. And I’m pretty much over illness this year, thank you very much. So I’ll just say I’ll be back soon!