Peachy keen, jelly bean
Peachy keen, indeed! Peach is one of the most difficult colours I can think of to style. When done right, it can look uber-chic. If done wrong, it’s suitable only for the elderly, and even then only on a cruise ship holiday. Or at best a bridesmaid from the mid-80s.
This blouse fits the second category. 100% polyester and designed for old ladies’ loungewear, it is a vibrant shade of peach. I bought this last summer at Scope in Whitby, parting with £3.50.
The very best thing about this blouse is the laser-cut broderie anglaise effect at the bottom. It’s so simple, and so pretty. And scallops are so ‘now’!
I think it was the scallops that made me think of shorts for this, having seen many many scallop-edged shorts in blogland this past summer.
For this project I chose Burda 07/2011 #109 in size 38. I chose it because of the elasticated waist ( = easy) and the in-seam pockets (a must for any casual shorts) but Burda has a billion other shorts patterns that would do the job well, if not better. Because this pattern was intended for short-shorts, I extended the leg 4-5″ or so which was the depth of the flower pattern on the original blouse.
It was easy enough to cut the pieces with the hem against the bottom edge of the original blouse.
Unfortunately there wasn’t quite enough fabric. You can see the inside leg on the right hand side below is pieced. The outside leg is intact with its in-seam pockets cut from the sleeves!
There was literally about 5% of the material left… hardly anything.
Here are the finished shorts with their elasticated waist.
I toyed with the idea of adding a couple of the original buttons back on as a design feature, but decided in the end that it brought them too close to the original blouse and much too close to cruise ship territory as they do have a slight nautical feel.
I styled this as best I could. In this pic I am wearing the shorts with a transparent black overblouse with shiny gold buttons. The gold buttons give it a slightly spangly, 1970s feel. I had gold sandals and a gold cuff which worked well, alongside a beaded native-american style bag which has salmon, black, gold and yellow beads and ties the whole lot together nicely. I call this look “70s-Navajo-Cruse Ship” and grabbed a couple of pics on my yacht off Cooper Island in the British Virgin Islands. Vogue eat your heart out.
Charity Shop Chic 
British Virgin Islands? Really? *jealous sigh* …
However, what a great vision! YES those scalloped shorts are so ‘now’, and I wouldn’t say peach, I’d say ‘coral’ ;)
Great refashion, as always!
Thanks Erica! You are very kind saying ‘coral’… it really is a hideous peach
Love the shorts!
Hey, thanks!
Really cute!! You could have gone shorter ;-)
Hot pants with cutouts?! Not sure that would have been suitable for family viewing
Hi Sally, This looked amazing… Btw, Im your newest follower. If you want to see my blog, its. http://houseofpinheiro.blogspot.com/
Merry Christmas
Hi and thanks for the follow. I will check out your blog it looks great!
You are seriously clever. I’m inspired to look at the daggies in my wardrobe in a whole new light. Note to all, start refashioning and you too might one day own this yacht!!!
HAHAHA I should probably point out that I don’t actually own this yacht (it was chartered). But start saving those pennies now and you never know!
great idea! love the results
Thanks for the comment!
this is so cute too! I like how you turn the shirt into a scalloped hem shorts!
mongs
mythriftycloset.blogspot.com
Thank you for the sweet comment! :)
SUUuuuuuUUUuuper cute!! Such a beauiful color! I bet they’d look really great with opaque black tights and ankle boots during the winter, too!
I agree they would look good with ankle boots but I am SO not brave enough for winter shorts. We have several centimetres of snow in London today!!
Love this idea. Your blog makes me itch to bust out my sewing machine!
Eva, do it! It’s so much fun tweaking things to make them better!