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!

Back from Vacation!

Yesterday evening, my boys and I returned from Naples, Florida. We made a last minute decision to go on a vacation after there was another delay on the construction of our pool. (Sadly, the contractor's father passed away.)

Since the pool was supposed to be finished by mid-July, we didn't book a vacation this summer, planning to enjoy the pool. So with further delays and a yard that is torn up, I took the boys to Florida for a week. My husband stayed behind as he had to work and look after the contractors.

We had a WONDERFUL time! We stayed right on the beach and did lots of swimming in the Gulf and pool, and went on a tour of The Everglades and took a sunset sail. With virtually no wind, there was actually very little sailing on the sunset sail. But the SPECTACULAR sunset made up for it!

Prior to setting off on our spur of the moment vacation, I did manage to get a few pictures of the blouse and fabric. I'll be catching up on laundry the next day or two, but in between I should be able to progress on this project. I did get all of the tucks sewn before leaving, which was the most time consuming part.

In the first picture, you can see the pattern of the black and white medallions, as well as the loose basketweave. In the second picture, you can see the crispness of the fabric and how wonderfully it works into tucks. It's a spectacular vintage cotton... the color is a luscious mint green, which doesn't show in the pictures. (Hopefully the true color will show in final pics.)

And here is a picture of me on the beach. I made the beach wrap... it's not a vintage pattern, but it was super fast and easy to sew up!

Another Top!

I realized that I need more of a variety of tops. I seem to have blouses for the fall/winter and then little camisole tops for very casual summer wear... and not much in between.

So last week I started work on a new top from Simplicity 2005. It's from Margie's pattern stash, the lady from the May 2 auction haul.

It's a lovely, classic style with the tucks. I'm using a vintage fabric from Louise's stash, the pattern and fabric haul from the May 23 auction haul. The fabric is a lightweight, mint green fabric. It's light and crisp with a small, 1 cm loose square basketweave every couple of cm's. (I took pictures, but my laptop has issues and I can't download pics on this computer. Stay tuned for fabric and WIP pictures.) I was delighted with how well it washed and ironed!

This fabric needed a pretty pattern. A basic shirt with collar didn't look right. Plus, I had a limited amount of it - 1 1/2 yards and it's 35" wide. I'm making View 2, with the tab.

Yesterday, I finished sewing the tuck and hope to get the darts done today.

I'll post more pictures soon!

The Finished Top

Here it is! Finished a week ago and waiting patiently for pictures.

The ladies in my sewing group helped me to identify the fabric as cotton twill. Thanks SO MUCH Elaine and Michelle!!!!

The straps were a fiddle, and I didn't get it perfect. But it's wearable and I can live with it.

If this top doesn't say summer fun, I don't know what does!