DIY: Peasant Blouse

If you haven’t guessed yet, my husband and I like to dress up for random geeky things. And the Renaissance Faire is definitely a reason to dress up 🙂 But when I discovered I didn’t have a peasant blouse to complete my latest outfit, I figured I’d try to make one myself.

And it was way easier than I’d expected! Altogether, all it took was a couple yards of cheap fabric, a sewing machine, and one hour.

Easy DIY Peasant Blouse

What You’ll Need:

• Two yards of cheap fabric (I used white, but you could use any color)
• Matching thread
• Scissors
• Pins
• Elastic
• Sewing machine
• One of your t-shirts (something that fits slightly loose since you’ll be using this as your pattern)

How To Start:

First, fold your fabric in half and lay it out with the folded edge at the top of your work space. Lay the t-shirt out on top of the fabric with the neck hole along the folded edge of the fabric.

The t-shirt will act as your pattern, so make sure to use one that fits well but is maybe a bit on the loose side. Cut around the edge of the t-shirt leaving yourself an extra margin of about one inch on all sides. You can leave extra length in the arms if you’d like longer sleeves. Leave extra length at the bottom if you’re going for more of a tunic-length blouse.

 

When you’re done with that, fold your fabric in half to make sure all of the edges match up. Trim any excess. Then it’s time to add the neck hole. I would recommend making this on the smaller side since you’ll lose about a half-inch all the way around when you hem it. I cut roughly a 2 1/2 inch square for the neck.

Now it’s time to sew everything together!

Your fabric should still be connected at the shoulders (the folded part of the fabric from the first step) but you’ll need to sew the rest of your sleeve together. Leaving a 1/4 inch seem, sew along the top part of the sleeve.

Once this is done, sew along the bottom of the sleeve, beginning at the end and working your way toward the body of the shirt. When you reach the armpit, reinforce the stitch by back-stitching a small section then continue sewing along the body of the shirt.

Then repeat on the other side.

Next, hem the bottom of the shirt. I pinned the fabric first since I wanted a nice double-folded edge, but you don’t necessarily need to do this.

Now, time to add the finishing touches–namely the elastic in the sleeves and neckline.

To add elastic to the sleeves, you’ll need to fold down and hem a 1/2-1 inch seem most of the way around each sleeve, creating a channel to insert the elastic into. Make sure not to sew the entire way around otherwise you won’t be able to string your elastic in.

I taped the end of my elastic first to make the rigid (easier to feed through the channel). Feed the elastic through then tie the ends together, giving the sleeve a slightly “bunched” look. Then repeat on the other sleeve.

You’ll repeat a similar process for the neckline–with just a few small alterations.

In order to create your hem along the neckline, you’ll need to make a diagonal cut at each corner of the neck hole (otherwise you can’t fold the fabric down). Sew your 1/2-1 inch hem all the way around the neck hole, sewing right across these cut out diagonals (if that makes sense…). Feed your elastic through the channel and tie off.

Turn the whole works right-side-out, and you’ve got yourself a simple peasant blouse!

Pair it with a corset, a skirt, or whatever. Just have fun with it! As always, let me know if you have any questions or comments 🙂

Happy Crafting!