Shaping Up

The blouse is starting to take shape.

Today I finally managed to get into my sewing room for a little while. I sewed the waistline tuck/darts, the bust darts, the back darts and added two darts at the top, back neckline. I also sewed the side and shoulder seams and hemmed the inside edge of the front self-facings.

Because this pattern is a 34B, normally large for me, I pinned the bust darts prior to sewing to check for fit. Often, I have excess just above these darts and below/to the front of my armscyce. I was surprised, however, that this fit well. Could it be my boobs are getting bigger!!!!??? :D :D :D

OK, a girl can hope... obviously it's just the way this pattern runs; I did have the usual excess in the center back which I took out with two darts. I may need to adjust these a bit more tomorrow.

These are the lower back dart/tucks. The small/pointed end starts about 1/2 from the bottom and widens as they go upwards. Then at the top, you pivot 90 degrees and sew to the edge to form a tuck:

The same tucks on the outside give a gorgeous, blousen shape:

This is a lightweight fabric (albeit a bit crisp) with a tiny bit of fraying so I decided to use French seams. I'm really happy with how they worked on this fabric. It's not bulky and presses down nicely.

The center fronts are self facing; I stablized the buttonhole side with fusible interfacing prior to stitching the 1/4" hem and pressing back. You'll notice in the pictures that I hand basted the front fold lines and the buttonholes.

So far, I'm happy with how this is shaping up. DH commented on how pretty it was and that he liked the tucks! I spent a lot of time prior to vacation marking, folding and sewing them so it was nice that he liked the results!

Close up of the front tucks and hand basting:

Hopefully over the weekend I can tweak the back neckline darts, sew the neckline facings, get the tab sewn and cut/sew the bias for the armholes. The buttonholes, buttons and hem will probably be next week.

Also, I hope that when I get final pictures, the true minty-green of the fabric shows! I'll have to get the lighting right!

I hope that nothing goes wrong!