Shortening a Finished Lotus Blossom

Jan 14, 2016 | How To, Lotus Blossom | 0 comments

Sometimes, when we make something. It doesn’t fit us exactly how we anticipated. Usually, it’s pretty simple to just nip in the sides or take a little off the bottom if something is a bit too big. Other times, it can seem a bit more complicated.


For example, the Lotus Blossom Blouse. IMG_3994 This is my Lotus Blossom from testing. (Hi! It’s Kelly, Tami’s assistant.) As you can see from where my hands are on my hips, the shirt is quite long on me. I actually had some extra length tucked up into the bottom even. Yeah, I’m short. I am all of 5’2″ and a half. Yes, it matters. 😉 But, despite being a bit long on me, I still wear my shirt quite a bit. And each and every time I will fiddle with it and think that I need to look at how to shorten it. And then there was a question about how to shorten a finished Lotus Blossom in the Facebook group, and that was all the push I needed to figure it out. And guess what! It’s actually really easy!! Cut up the side seams as much as you want to shorten. Remember to take hem into account. I wanted to shorten my shirt 3″.

IMG_9254 Alright, side seams are cut. That wasn’t so scary, right? IMG_9255 Measure along the bottom hem making a dashed line to cut along on the wrong side of the shirt minus the hem. So, I measured up 2″ to leave enough to hem 1″. IMG_9256 Cut the back along this line. IMG_9257 Flip shirt over so it is front side down with the right side against the table. Now working along the inside of the shirt, measure how far you are shortening, plus the 1″ hem from the back since we don’t hem the front. So for me, I am measuring up 3″, the same as what we cut up the side seam. IMG_9258

You may have to unpick some of the center seam as well. Just use your best judgment on this.

IMG_9259

Flip the shirt back over so it is facing up. You will have to work your way into the twist here. And you will be marking what is technically the right side of the shirt. However, it won’t show because it gets cut off for one. And second, it curls up here and doesn’t show. I did switch to a less permanent pen though just in case I mis-marked my cut line.

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Mark your line all the way to the center seam again. IMG_9261

Now cut your front panels one at a time. Be careful to uncurl the fabric where needed and only cut through a single layer at a time. IMG_9265

Now just press the back hem back into place and stitch! IMG_9267

And I’m terribly sorry, but you get a mirror selfie for the final shot since I have nobody here to take a picture of me and I can’t seem to master the timer on my camera. 😉 IMG_9272 Doesn’t that look better!! Now, it is best to alter before you finish your project. And, this is why muslins are super important! But, sometimes trial runs don’t happen or we forget to make the alterations that our body shape dictates that we need and we need to be able to adjust after construction. And that’s okay! Now we can shorten the Lotus Blossom after it’s been all sewn up!

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