Refashion - Ladies Top to Child Playsuit

As I said in my previous post I recently bought three items of clothes from a charity shop with a view to refashioning them all, and this one is number two!  This top caught my eye because of the fabric and as much as I really wanted to make something for me with it I knew the Child would love it!  She has always been quite good at identifying birds and loves blue tits and owls in particular.

I did not use any original features of this top, except the bottom hem, and instead cut it up to harvest it for the fabric.  The pattern I based the finished playsuit on is Butterick 3259 from 1985, so I guess this counts as one of my Vintage Pattern Pledges too, which means I have sewed three items from vintage patterns so far this year!

The pattern has a lot of options all revolving around an elasticated bodice with spaghetti straps.  I made a lot of changes to this.  The bodice was seamed both front and back due to the choice of fabric and there is a funny seam on the back leg pieces where I had to cut those bits out over an existing seam.  There are 6 panels in the lower section of the top so cutting out was challenging!  As I said, I did manage to use the original hem for the bottom of the shorts.  

Instead of sewing a channel to feed the elastic through for the bodice and waist I used shirring elastic, I just prefer the look and ease of it on a garment like this.  I am considering making a dress version of this for our upcoming holiday and would do the same on that.  I also altered the straps from thin spaghetti style ones to thick ones which I cut out from the sleeves. I just prefer the look of them, and I think they will last better!

There really was not a lot of fabric left when I had finished making this, and it was actually a very quick make, once I had finished faffing around trying to find the best place to cut things out!  It has certainly gone down very well with the Child, she refused to take it off after I had finished taking the photos!