Irene, and
Shannon suggested that I might want to try a size 40 (one size down from the 42 I had made last time.) It was good advice, so I took it:-)
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| Mirror pictures aren't easy! |
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| Trying to do it without the camera in front of your face is even worse! |
I'm not sure that it looks much different, but the 40 certainly doesn't look too small. So, if I choose this pattern, I'll definitely sew the 40 rather than the 42. I flared out to a 44 at the hips on this version. It was too much. Flaring out to a 42 is plenty.
There were several suggestions to take some of the ease out of the sleeves. This seems like a good plan. I'm not sure how to go about this. Should I just cut a little off the "top of the mountain" or shave the "slopes of the mountain"?
Meanwhile, so as to slow myself down and
actually wait for the Butterick pattern to arrive and muslin, I am going to make a blouse. Blouses are everywhere, and I want one! Well, I want one that is less than 8 years old:-) I still have a few blouses left from my working days, but they are a little dated! (Ouch, I am just another statistic of a well educated woman falling out of the jobs market when she has kids. There are loads of "exit ramps" but are there any "on ramps" for later?)
I am going to go for Burda 10-2011-128. It looks like a relatively straight-forward pattern for someone who has NEVER sewn a shirt or blouse! I plan to make it up in cotton lawn, which I have already pre-washed. Since I plan to machine wash and dry this blouse, I want to make sure that the seams don't unravel. French seams on the sides and shoulders seam like a straight forward option, but I am unsure about what to do with the arm-hole seams. What would you do?
Armscye seams: stitch, stitch again about 1/4 from the seam, trim, then hand-overcast.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I've ever sewn a blouse either. Huh. But your plan sounds good!
ReplyDeleteInteresting point about the on and off ramps. I wonder if it's more productive to approach it as a second career as opposed to picking up where one left off? I hope that when I have those decisions to make, I'll be able to be thoughtful about what it is I'd like to do and accomplish in my later career as opposed to the job/career I sort of fell into after college.
The easiest way I've come up with to remove the ease is to pin them on in the flat--you'll take some of the slope off the sides and some of the peak off the top. Once it goes in nicely flat, you can cut off the extra with your serger as you sew it together and voila! Ease removed. :-)
ReplyDeleteBlouses aren't terribly hard, especially if you have access to good techniques. And there are tons of them on the internet. You'll do great. :-) As for going back to work, I have no good ideas. The best advice I have there is to keep your chin up. Don't get discouraged.
Good luck with the blouse - you'll be fine - I think one of the common mistakes is not noting the BACK of the sleeve when inserting - which in turn will muck up your cuffs - but as long as you notch and mark according to the pattern you'll be fine. Do you have an overlocker / serger? I'd just overlock the edges of the armscye. As far as the on ramp ... just enjoy the time you have now - the right thing will happen at the right time! Like right now ... I'd better vacuum before getting my act together for Pilates!!
ReplyDeleteI zigzag everything and never had any laundry failures. Your leather shirt is going to be gorgeous! I love the pattern and I hope it makes up well in leather.
ReplyDeleteMostly off the top of the mountain, cutting any off the side slopes will just make your sleeve narrower across the top of the arm.
ReplyDeleteYou can flat-fell armhole seam allowances (but it's tricky!) and sometimes I've finished with HongKong seaming, but if you just want something easy peasy and not fancy, then overlocking is a perfectly good option!
Cannot wait to see your leather blouse...!
I really like the Burda blouse pattern and think that this will be a good beginning point for blouse making because it doesn't have the front placket or a collar and stand. Cotton lawn is always lovely for a blouse and will be well behaved to work with. For the armhole finishing I always serge the seams but an alternative would be a double row of straight stitching with a zig zag between the two rows of straight stitching. Or seam binding always looks good - but ready made binding might be too heavy for cotton lawn - if you were feeling like some fussy work you could make your own bias seam binding from the cotton lawn and use that - it would look very lovely and be hard-wearing.
ReplyDeleteMuslin looking better. The way I take ease out of the sleeve cap (and I'm sure not the only way to go about it) is to take a small pleat out of the cap of the sleeve. Then, you'll have to smooth out the cutting line.
ReplyDeleteThe blouse pattern looks wonderful.
It looks like you have a good fit here. I am curious how to shave down a sleeve cap as well--I've never done it!
ReplyDeleteDon't be intimidate by blouses--they're just short dresses. ;-)