Bodyline Blouse Review and Re-do or a Lacey Makeover

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A while ago I bought a blouse from a Japanese site, Bodyline.  This is the third one I have bought from them (see Catching Up – A Wee Bit of Online Shopping).  I could not resist it.  The prices for pretty much all of their stuff had dropped drastically.

I manage to buy the blouse (it’s l157 in off-white) and 2 pairs of tights for about $34, that’s including the shipping and about the same amount I would have paid before for just the blouse. 

There were a few snags.

The tights are nice with a pretty color and texture, but one little problem.  They don’t fit.  The legs are too short for me, surprisingly.  But I have plans for that in the future.

Anyway, there is the blouse to deal with.  It is a pretty design with a cute but large collar, and the fabric is decent.

It laces up nicely with ribbon in the back to adjust the fit.  It fits me well, so no problems there.

It has detachable sleeves so I can wear it as a short sleeve blouse in warm weather…

…and have long sleeves in the winter.

The problem is all the lace, that awkward ruffly lace. 

In the product photos it looked more like a lace used in some of their other blouses which I totally love.  This blouse was cursed with a lower quality lace.  And the gathering of the lace and it’s placement only made it looker cheaper, at least to my eyes.  Time for a little makeover.

First I snipped off the lace from the collar.  The collar is quite large and the lace only emphasized that.  So did the rather large ribbon bows which had to go. 

I then removed the lace from the sleeves and from the front.

Here’s the interesting part, instead of replacing that old lace with something new, I reused it in different ways.  I took some of the now flat, unruffled lace and pinned it down the front of the lace in slightly overlapping rows.  Much prettier to look at now.

I also cut some of the lace into thinner strips of lace to use along the edges of the collar and the short sleeves.  Thinner lace is more discreet on a large collar.

After sewing down all that lace by hand, I remade the ribbon bows into smaller and cuter bows (see my video tutorial for making simple bows if you don’t know how).

And now the finished blouse.  It is much better, prettier and easier to pull off.  I just need a pretty new skirt to pair with it, but that’s for another time.

Here’s the updated list:

• coats
• hearts
• organize
• blouse
• outfit

Three down, two more to go.  The next one should be up soon and it will be super cute.  Look forward to it.

Give it a try:

• Prym Dritz Seam Ripper
• Loops &Threads Seam Ripper