Repairing a Vintage Blouse

This customer found a lovely peasant style vintage top at a second hand store. Unfortunately, it must have had some old dirt holding it together, because parts of it disintegrated when she washed it. She came to me wanting a piece of fabric over the top front, to hide the decaying parts.

	As you can see here, the front center section of the top is badly worn and parts are missing. The client bought a nice piece of soft cotton to go over the existing piece.
	This shows a closer view of the damage. I created a replacement piece that was wider than the seam-to-seam area needing replacement. Then I gathered it slightly across the top, and even less across the bottom.
	I folded under the sides and sewed them to the existing princess seam line. Then,, arranging the gathers, I got the top and bottom to fit into the princess area. Then I stitched across the top and across the bottom. Although the work was a bit tedious, I am very pleased with the results, and so is she!