Weekend Sewing: Summer Blouse

It's done! After a couple of days of diligent sewing, seam-ripping, and re-sewing, I finished the Summer Blouse from Heather Ross's Weekend Sewing.


(FRONT)


(BACK)

I threw caution to the wind and made a few adjustments/modifications - aka I made stuff up.
 
1. I used some wide, 1-inch vintage bias tape for the collar and the bottom hem. I just put right sides together, stitched, and then folded the wrong sides together, leaving a small amount of the binding showing from the right side.


and...


2. I added bias tape to the hem rather than sewing a double-folded hem, because the darn front and back pieces were so short, as cut out according to pattern! As it is, it's still a little too short for my long torso, so my mom got a little present.

3. The blouse is also way too loose, so I had the brilliant idea of imitating a store-bought shirt of which I'm fond. (It's from Hollister, if you can believe it - a 30-year-old, shopping at Hollister... Let me tell you, being called "miss" by a 19-year-old was simultaneously bizarre, creepy, and flattering.) I added two parallel darts in the back, with self-ties, for well, tying. Unfortunately, I neglected to take into account the fact that the Hollister shirt is (of course) cut more narrowly than the Summer Blouse, and thus the darts should have been placed further apart. Live and learn.



I learned quite a lot doing this project. I used bias tape for the first time, I made darts, I added improvised darts and waist/back ties, I learned how to slip stitch... And I learned how to set in sleeves into a sewn shirt. Yay me!