Teal Shirt Makeover

This is the story of a blouse that needed a makeover.  It was looking a bit tired but was still a comfy fit and I love the 3/4 length sleeves.  This picture doesn't show the color accurately, see the swatch below for a better idea of the darker teal color.

 

I decided to add a simple vertical stripe of ribbon on either side of the button placket.  Vertical stripes help us appear taller and slimmer, and hey, I'll take all the help I can get with that.  After trying several ribbons and bits of lace I had on hand, I settled on this iron-on bias tape.  It's variegated shades of blues, greens and purple - yummy!  It's only 6 mm wide, so I'm thinking a double row might be needed for a bigger impact. 

I went with a triple row, just on the upper (buttonhole) side of the placket.



 

Because there is such a tiny line of fusible web on each stripe, I'm thinking I need to stitch these down to secure them really well.  Hmmmm......how about the specialty stitches on my sewing machine?  Off to experiment....

And here's what I did:

 

 

And here's the finished shirt, given a new lease on life with items I had on hand and a little time.  What do you think?