The latest installment in my quest for the perfect blouse

I admit, I'm picky. For me the perfect blouse is fitted, with a nice curvy shape that skims my hourglass/pear figure, and definitely avoids the poufy back issue. Sleeves must have a comfy fit with a full range of motion, and the blouse should look good on its own or layered with jumper dresses and cardigans.

I'm less specific about the details. Sleeves from short to 3/4" to full, necklines from V to round, and collars of any kind or none. 

My latest version in this quest is made from an amazing Indian cotton. Ochre-yellow with hand-screenprinted birds and foliage.

I used all my favorite sewing techniques; French seams are everywhere I could put them and I hand-finished the inner cuffs, collar, and front bands.

The pattern is Butterick 6816. I blended sizes between the bust, waist, and hip and made a full bust adjustment to make this blouse fit me just right! 

I am 95% pleased with the fit; there are still some drag lines I'd like to eliminate, but overall it's looking pretty good. And I love the cute sleeve vent detail.

The slight color difference is from my phone vs. my real camera; in reality the color is more toward the citron/greeny tone.

I have already cut out another one of these and can't wait to sew it up!

A pleated corduroy skirt

I made a new skirt! I got this floral printed corduroy at the Textile Center garage sale a couple years ago and the pattern reminds me of an 18th century chintz, so I thought a full pleated skirt would be a fun historically-inspired project.

I really love how it turned out! So floofy and full, so cozy and warm! I have been wearing it with a petticoat; I like the extra floof and it also prevents the skirt sticking to my leggings.

The waist is adjustable and here's why. The first winter after Covid, I found to my dismay that none of my winter skirts fit anymore; I got a couple inches bigger around the middle. Now, I am happy with my body and I feel good, but the damn zippers just wouldn't zip! So I started this skirt with the plan to make the sizing flexible.

For awhile I overthought the adjustable aspect but decided to keep it simple; I pleated the skirt into a band about 2" larger than my desired finished measurement, then just overlapped the band and sewed several sets of hooks and eyes.

The pleats, the busy fabric, and the fullness all hide the overlap quite nicely!

I don't usually choose brown for clothes, so I've been a little lost about what to pair this with. So far this thrifted red tee is my favorite, but I've also liked it with green!

Ok the last thing I want to say: I plead with anyone reading this, please don't over-complicate pleated skirts! You DON'T need graphs, you DON'T need math, and you definitely don't need to precisely measure your pleats!

This is a big giant rectangle, and I just hand-formed each pleat and used some trial and error to perfect their size and overlap. If it was a little off, I just adjusted a pleat or two here and there to make it fit. It's okay for a few pleats to be 1/8" bigger than the next ones. I promise. 

My new winter coat!

This coat has been YEARS in the making. It's not that it was difficult, it's just that there's SO MUCH of it. Plus, it's kinda hard to stay motivated on seasonal sewing out-of-season. This wasn't exactly the first project I wanted to reach for in the hot days of summer!

Anyway it's done now and I am so glad! 

It's a very fit-and-flare shape with a nicely defined waist and huge skirt, made in dark teal wool Melton from Treadle. The weather was absolutely dismal today so these photos are very grey, but I did not want to wait a moment longer! 

The hemline is huge. It's practically a full circle. It's swishy and cute and took a TON of fabric.

It also took forever to hem! Worth it, though.

Did I mention the hemline is HA-UGE? So much fullness in back!

I would have loved the look of more buttons, but I know it would have made me crazy to have to do them all up all the time. Besides I only had 4 of this style in my stash.

The pattern is McCall's 6800. I snapped it up as soon as I saw it because a fitted, classic coat pattern is a find. Thar was like 4 years ago and I think it's still current!

I made the bottom of view D and the top of A. I made the break much higher to keep the cold out, and I made the collar and lapels a little narrower, but didn't change much else. I cut the size 12 and made a full bust adjustment, then sewed a mockup and tweaked the fit.

Ok, my lining is boring, but I learned my lesson on my last coat about needing some slip in the sleeves! I interlined the coat with cotton flannel for warmth; you can see through the lining where the flannel stops.

I put plenty of ease into this lining - I learned my lesson on that, too! There's a big pleat at center back and the lining moves loosely in the coat.

I had a terrible time getting that collar to lay flat! The topstitching helped, plus rolling it into shape before stitching. Also I just love these buttons! Dug them out of the stash.

Cute pocket fabric, because why not? It's 18th c repro cotton print. I don't like slippery pockets. The pockets are in-seam on the side front.

This pattern called for a lot of fabric, and I was short by almost a full yard. So I ignored the nap layout.

Then I realized I forgot to cut out the front facings. So I got creative with piecing. Definitely made good use of my cabbage!

The piecing is all in the lower inside front. It's pretty discreet.

I also had to piece a small strip into the lower sleeve. Again, I tried to choose a less-noticeable area.

One more inside detail: I clipped the heck out of my princess seams, especially at the waist. With so much curve I did not want to risk puckering. 

 

There are small shoulder pads sewn in for structure, I think about 3/8" thick. 

I could nitpick many, many things, but overall it's pretty dang good. The fit is not perfect, but oh well. It is definitely the best coat I've ever made! And now I really want to start another one. Maybe green?

A New Blouse

I finished a new blouse!

I used the same pattern as my Japanese floral double gauze blouse from a few years ago, McCall's 6124. 

I have to admit I'm not entirely thrilled with this pattern, ever after all my changes and fitting tweaks. I'm not sure if I'll continue to fuss with it for upcoming versions or start again with a different pattern.

The fabric is a very light weight 50/50 cotton and rayon blend. It's very soft! The colors are delightful and I love the print with all the sassy-faced ladies.

The fit in back is never as smooth as I hope, but it's pretty good.

The front and cuffs close with grey mother-of-pearl buttons I found in my stash. I like the way they disappear into the print.

I'm not used to buttoning my cuffs! When I wear this with a cardigan I will probably just leave them unbuttoned for easier rolling up of sleeves.

Yay! A blouse! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

This is currently on display at Treadle Yard Goods if you want to go visit it!

Aprons!

I love aprons! They're cute, fun, and practical, and I wear one every day. I am pretty hard on them so I have to replace them pretty often. Here are my latest two!

This one has cute little forest mushrooms! The front bib is my usual pattern with front darts. I scooped the neck and used a 5-gored skirt, with pockets that extend into the gore seams.

The second one has pies! Same bodice pattern but I cut a v-neck. Both bibs are fully lined to make finishing easier.

My usual cross-over back on both. Neck straps annoy me, so this is more comfortable. The pie apron has a gathered skirt instead of gores - it uses a little less fabric and I ran short!

Here's how I made them. The skirt and bib sections are made separately. First I finished the skirt portion on its own - sections seamed and serged, edges hemmed, waistband on. This could be a perfectly fine half-apron by itself.

But I am very messy! So a bib/bodice section is required. I finished the bib and serged the bottom edge.

I joined the bib by lapping the serged edge under the waistband and topstitching. Then put it on to test the strap placement before sewing, and done!

To tie these on, you just put your arms through the armholes, cross the ties behind your back, and tie in front. I put a little video up on my Instagram if that doesn't make sense.

This is probably the 10th time I've made some variation on this style, and I love it!

Tree Print Dress

The best thing about having a big pile of half-done projects is how quick it can be to finish one up! Here's my latest UFO all done.

It's the same pattern again that I used for a green lace dress and a linen print dress (which is now in the UFO pile for alterations). It was a decent pattern but I think I'm over it now. Something different next time!

I had wanted to make this dress without a waist seam, but cutting it this way was more stingy and this fabric was expensive! It's a loosely woven, cottony-feeling rayon.

I also tried a new-to-me technique for lining the bodice. I assembled the bodice and lining except for the shoulder seam, then joined them and clipped, turned, and pressed. Next I sewed the fashion fabric's shoulder seam:

Then handsewed the lining's shoulder seam.

The finished shoulder:

I don't like this technique. I've read it in pattern directions before and always thought it was silly, but I figured I'd better give it a try before I judged it. Well now I have, and I can: it's annoying. I much prefer the method of leaving the side seams open.

I also tried the dress with a white collared blouse, which I like in theory but I'm not really sure it's for me.

Pockets of course!

The whole front closes with about a million tiny buttons. They are grey-blue and blend in really well with the fabric, which is what I wanted with such a lovely print. The whole dress is lined with light blue cotton lawn.

I really love this fabric!

I haven't worn it for real yet, but so far I really like it!

New Skirts!

These three new skirts all have one thing in common: I finished them, and then went back and took them apart again and altered them!

This first one is in a chambray linen with a geometric print. I used Simplicity 8019 and added a curved patch pocket and three 1/2" tucks at the hem. I also swapped out the straight waistband for a curved one for a nicer fit.

My silly mistake on this one was trusting the measurement chart. My waist and hip both fell perfectly into the same size, so I cut out the size indicated and went ahead. I like to wear my modern skirts just a little below the waist, and figured any ease would just make it sit lower.

Well I learned my lesson! The finished skirt was about 3 inches too big in the waist and I was swimming in it! It sat WAY too low on my hips for comfort. I picked out the stitching at the side seams and waistband, took it in, and sewed it back up. Now it's perfect!

The tucks at the hem are my favorite part! 

I made this yellow denim skirt for a work display a few months ago, from New Look 6346. (I probably could've ironed it for pictures, but let's get real: I'm not gonna iron it, like, ever. So this is true to reality!)

Like the linen skirt above, I cut out a larger size than I should have because I was following the chart. I ended up taking the waistband off and taking in the skirt and waistband seams, then reattaching it.

I made a pocket and fabric-covered buttons from a teal floral print that I thought coordinated well.

The denim is very crisp and I love the way it makes my skirt stand out!

This embroidered chambray skirt is a couple years old. I also initially made it for a work display - you can see the blog post here. 

The fit was fine on this skirt, but the wide, straight-cut waistband never sat right on my shape; the upper half of the waistband stood away from my body.

I replaced the wide, straight waistband with a narrower, curved one that contours around my shape much better. I also added the pockets that I initially left off. 

I decided to ditch the belt loops and sash from the original. They were cute but I don't often tuck my shirt in and they're lumpy otherwise.

So excited to have three new skirts in my wardrobe, all in great weights for fall layering!