Droopy shoulders on a blouse

I hope all that celebrate Thanksgiving had a wonderful time with family and friends and have lots of yummy leftovers!

About two weeks ago I bought a gorgeous blouse on ebay, brand new with tags. It's waaaay to large, but I knew that before I placed my bid and no problem there. I can easily take it up, but the shoulders are causing me a bit of a problem. They are about 2 inches it not a smidge more too long and droop down my arm destroying the beauty of this piece. I would suppose the only correct way to remedy this problem is to remove the sleeves, cut the excess material, thereby shortening the shoulder seam, and reattach the sleeves?

I've thought about putting in a dart on each shoulder but not sure how this would look. My quandry lies in the fact that my sewing skills are not that polished and am rather nervous about removing the sleeves, cutting the excess material, and then reattaching the sleeves. I've searched this site for previous posts on this but nothing helpful came up. Either that or my search skills were lacking.

Any thoughts and solutions on my problem?

Reply to
itsjoannotjoann
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Try this. Just over an inch in from the shoulder seam, pinch up a one-inch deep pleat. Pin it in place so that the outer edge of the pleat sits almost on top of the shoulder seam. Do the same thing on the other shoulder. Finger press the pleat down three or four inches in front and one or two inches in back. Try it on, see if you like it.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Reply to
Olwyn Mary

Dear Itsjoannnotjo,

A variation on Olwyn Mary's idea is to run a gathering (running) stitch along the shoulder seam and pull it up. This will create a draped shoulder seam that will (hopefully) compliment the design of the blouse. If your sewing skills are not up to par, don't attempt to remove the sleeves; set-in sleeves are the hardest part of the construction, and will mar the design if not done well.

Teri

Reply to
gjones2938

Oh, thank you both! I REALLY appreciate the tips!! I will try both with some basting thread just to see which one 'fits' this blouse. Heaven knows the thought of removing those sleeves had me quite nervous. I just knew I would end up with an expensive dust cloth when I got through. Every day I would look at this blouse and think "what am I going to do, what am I going to do?"

Reply to
itsjoannotjoann

One other thought: check the crossgrain line about an inch below the shoulder seams while it's on you. If it's running downhill toward the arms, you may have a blouse that was meant to have shoulder pads and someone has cut them out. If that's the case, gathering the shoulder may be the easiest way to correct the droopiness. Or shoulder pads.

You might also explore taking in the sleeve and body a bit with the side and underarm seam. Or, because it's too large a size for you, if you haven't got a collar on it, consider pulling the neckline closer to your neck with darts radiating out from the neckline. If you do this, you want the same amount of fullness coming out of the front and back of the neckline, so you keep the balance of the garment.

We seem to be in a transition now from drop shoulder sleeves and basically dartless bodies (like shirts) to a more fitted silhouette with darts (or their equivalent) and set-in sleeves with the seam very close to the anatomical joint. Sometimes it can be difficult to remake an item very thoroughly when you're moving from one block to another without recutting the whole thing. But do try playing with your shirt and some hand=basting of possible changes... basting seems to give me a better idea of how something will look when done than pins do.

Kay

Reply to
Kay Lancaster

I solved a similar problem by making several 1/4" tucks on the shoulder and stitching in the ditch along the shoulder seam. Try various tucks or pleats to see what works best. Depends on fabric and drape, and the overall look of your blouse. Mine was a sheer silk overblouse, part of a three-piece outfit I purchased since I had no time to make something for the occasion.

Jean

Reply to
Jean D Mahavier

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