Turning an 1980s Top Into DIY Short-Sleeve Tie-Neck Blouse

Tools and materials:

• Patterned blouse
• Scissors
• Sewing machine
• Pins

1. Remove the shoulder pads

The first step is to flip the blouse inside out and if like mine it has crazy huge shoulder pads go ahead and remove them.

2. Trim the sleeves

Next, fold the blouse in half with the shoulder seams and underarm seams lined up and lay it on a flat surface. Now you could simply eyeball it and chop the sleeves to your desired length or you can grab a blouse that already has short sleeves, or even a t-shirt will do and use it as a template.

Go ahead and trim the sleeves of your blouse. Just make sure that those shoulder seams and underarm seams are lined up and that you give yourself a couple of centimeters for hemming and seam allowance.

3. Cut strips of fabric

Next, grab the ends of the sleeves you’ve chopped off, open them up, remove the cuffs, and you're ready to get started making your tie. Now chop the remaining fabric into strips; mine are about 10 centimeters (4 inches) wide, but you can do them any width that you want. It just all depends on how long and wide you want your final tie to be.

4. Sew the strips together

Now go ahead and stitch all of these together in a long line. Once you have all of your fabric pieces sewn together into a long strip, go ahead and fold it in half with the right sides facing, give it a quick press with the iron to hold it in place, trim off any excess bits and stitch it into a

super long tube. Then flip your tie right side out and stitch up the open ends.

5. Add the tie to the blouse

The next step is to sew your blouse together. Grab your tie and center it on the back of the neckline of the blouse. Then stitch them together.

DIY short-sleeve tie-neck blouse tutorial

This DIY was so awesome. It was so easy to create this groovy tie-neck blouse. I love how I’ve upcycled a frumpy, outdated 80s blouse into something trendy that I will love to wear.