The Pink Blouse

Yesterday, I picked up a car load of rocks for my front yard. 420 pounds. Sixteen dollars and eighty-three cents. After five years of moving rocks around my previous yard, I was absolutely sure I was done with rocks however, they are the easiest and least expensive option and so here I am again, for the sixth year in a row, moving rocks. Thank God this yard is so much smaller - a postage stamp in comparison. The rocks are still in the car this morning. I'll start placing them this afternoon. I only wanted to move them once, from the car to their spot, with no stops in-between.

My Bernina 1020 went for servicing in mid November and came back early December without a control foot. It died between packing up and picking up. I ordered one from the dealer only it was put on backorder indefinitely so after a month of waiting, I ordered an after market one from an online resource. Monday, the aftermarket one arrived in my mailbox. Tuesda,y the dealer emailed to say the part was in so I went from 0 to 2 in two days... plus the cost... and can only use one at a time. I now have an expensive foot and a back-up. Not exactly what I need but I am glad to be using this machine again. I made buttonholes on it yesterday when I...

 

... finished a wearable muslin of Butterick 5786. The fabric is a polyester blend that did strange things like shrink when I pressed it and pucker with top stitching. I liked it better on the bolt. When I bought the solid pink, I also bought a pink and white stripe that may not get used now. I'd rather invest my time and energy in a better quality fabric. 

I mentioned in the last post that I was going to use a shirt tail hemline on this project and obviously I didn't. When I thought about it, I didn't want to go to all that effort if the sizing wasn't going to work out the way I hoped. But it did - so maybe next time.  

I started this blouse differently by choosing the size that matched my full bust measurement as opposed to my upper bust one. The changes were minimal. I needed to both shorten the center back and center front lengths and the armhole depth so I took that measurement out through the armhole doing both at the same time and I narrowed the shoulder width by 3/8" along with the corresponding alterations of adding 3/8" to each side of the sleeve and to the sleeve cap.

The height of the sleeve cap needs to be adjusted for the both the change to the armhole depth (- 1 1/8") and the change to the shoulder width (+ 3/8") so the net adjustment was minus 3/4". It fit into the armhole smoothly. The puckers you see were caused by the top stitching. 

I've been sewing for so long that I don't always remember where I learned a particular technique like this one for attaching the collar stand and collar. As you can see, I've sewn the right side of the collar stand to the wrong side of garment body. This means that when you are wearing the blouse with the collar open, the seams that you can see are smoother because they were machine stitched. 

The collar is sewn separately and then attached to the collar stand. If there is a difference between the upper and under collar, this is where I  have to be really careful to make sure that it will fold down correctly. I often pin it in place on the mannequin so I know it's correct before stitching. And sometimes I have to reverse and redo. 

The hand stitching goes under the collar against the right side of the garment and is covered when the collar is in place. And not when it's not. But in my case, it's almost always covered since I have a short neck and perked up collars don't feel comfortable at all. This has become my preferred way to attach the collar and collar stand. 

This pink is light as I talked about in the last posting - another unfamiliar fashion object. I think the colour looks good on me and I think the curve of the shirt tail hem might be more flattering to my hips. But flattering isn't everything. Fun and variety are important too. 

What would your unfamiliar fashion object look like?

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - having my Bernina back