Floaty

I’ve got a bit of a backlog of projects still to show you, most of them items I made for Daughter No 2.  And a couple of my own.  Today’s offering is a blouse that I’d been putting off making for a while (I’m not a glutton for punishment!), but eventually I had to give in and get it made.  Daughter No 2 had asked for this blouse to be made in a piece of burgundy wine coloured fabric we bought from the Fancy Silk Store a rather long time ago now.  It’s polyester (so doesn’t like the iron), is drapey, floaty and slippy.

The pattern is 130 from Burda November 2013.  (The link is to the German site, the usual one is still hinky, and I don’t think it will ever be as good a resource for archive patterns as it was.)  I traced the 36 and didn’t toile…  I figured it was a loose fit anyway, so will be ok.  I decided to French Seam everything on the inside to keep it all lovely and neat.  The front and back opening slits were both shortened, the front is now 15cm long, otherwise it would gape and show underwear, and that’s something Daughter No 2 did not want.  The back was also shortened, but not as much as the front.  Unfortunately, in the photos we took, none are of the back opening!

The neckline is bound with self bias, as are the openings.  All would have been fine, but I shouldn’t have followed the instructions in the pattern to cut the bias strips to just 2cm wide.  It’s not quite enough, I should have cut 2.5 as a minimum especially for the neckline and the cuffs.  So if you’re planning on makng this blouse, that’s my reccommendation, cut wider bias strips!  Because the fibre content is polyester, it really didn’t want to stay pressed, which was a bit of a pain.  I used a lot of pins!

Another thing to be wary of is the width of the sleeve band.  The sleeve edge is fully gathered into the bias band, and it does come up a tad narrow.  Thankfully Daughter No2 has narrow hands and skinny wrists, because we’d have come unstuck otherwise!  So check that measurement over your hands, because you might just get to that point and not be able to get the blouse on.

But, I’m really happy with how it turned out, and might be persuaded to make another, but in a natural fibre this time…  That sleeve really is the best part of the whole top!  It’s basically a deep pleat, and is only secured with a few small stitches.  I reinforced the area with a scrap of fine sheer polyester fusible interfacing before stitching the pleat in place.  I hope it will give the area enough stability.

In the mean time Daughter No 2 really loves this blouse and, funnily enough, has plans for me to make another…  But NOT in polyester!

Author: Anne W

I love fabric, and sewing. And I could do nothing else but sew, all day, every day, if I could! View all posts by Anne W