Craig's Blouse finished!

I finally finished the blouse.  I had some trouble with the vents.  After following the directions, my vents did not look right.  I have made vents before, but it has been years.  I wasn't sure what I needed to do to fix these, but after help from fellow sewists at Artisan's square, I knew what to do.  I ended up ripping out the top stitching, taking some of the sleeve out of the cuff, and then redoing the vent facing.  I'm much happier now!   Gotta love the internet sewing community!!   The picture on the right is how they looked before I fixed the.

 I've been working all week at school, so I've only been getting to my blouse a few minutes here and there.

Things I love about this blouse

• The fabric!  I used a rayon challis, and it feels great.  I love the way it drapes too.
• The fit.  It's hard to tell in the pictures, but it fits really well through the shoulders and back.  Also, there is no gaping at the neck in the back or front.  I cut a 2 in the shoulders and sleeves, and did a pivot and slide to the size 3 at the underarm.  I love that Silhouette patterns has different cup sizes.  I can make the 2/3 D and not have to do any FBA
• The French cuffs - sort of.  I love the way they look, but they are cumbersome to open and close. 
• I love the way Peggy does the facings (and cuffs.)  You create the facing and then slide the bodice into it and top stitch. (see picture on the left)

Things I don't love and will change next time:

• The cuffs.  Although I like the look, I will make regular cuffs next time
• The gathers in the front.  They hit right below the bust, which is not flattering.  I tried to be careful and make sure they were even, but it is just not flattering.  Next time I will either place the gathers at the bust or at the waist.
• The vent.  Next time I will fold the vent facing/binding in half lengthwise before I sew it on.

I really do like this blouse and will definitely make it again!

Craig's Blouse progress

I didn't have a lot of time to sew yesterday, but I did get "Session One"  finished.

I ended up trimming all of my pieces against the pattern because of the challis fabric.  On some patterns it wouldn't really matter that much, but since this is more fitted, it will need to be closer to the mark.  Hoping to make good progress today.

Next up - Leopard!

I went into JoAnns earlier this week to look for some linen and I ran across this leopard print rayon challis.  I just recently received the "Craig's Blouse" from Silhouette patterns and think this will be a perfect pairing.

However, Rayon challis is NOT my favorite fabric to work with.  It doesn't hold its shape when you're working with it and it moves all over the place.

I prewashed the fabric and ironed it.  I noticed that the selvedge had shrunk or pulled up a little, so I clipped it every couple of inches.  If you don't do this, the fabric does not lay flat and your pattern pieces will be distorted.  I have successfully used starch in the past, but I just wanted to get going on this.

Yesterday I traced out all the pattern pieces on Swedish tracing paper.  I really like this because it is like medium weight non-woven interfacing.  I wish I had space to hang my patterns, but I usually end up folding them back into the envelope, or a bigger envelope.












For this blouse, I cut a 2 in the neck, shoulders and sleeve.  I cut a 3 from the bust down.  I did a pivot adjustment to keep the armhole the same size.  As I was tracing the sleeve, I noticed that it has a weird curve in it.  I don't need the extra fullness here, so I drew a straight line and cut it.  Uh oh - I hope I didn't accidentally trace the 2W!  I better go check that!!

Well, it's all cut out.  The last Silhouettes pattern that I made was a rayon crepe, and I did not use interfacing.  This fabric, however is very unstable.  The picture on the right shows something that typically happens with challis.  When you lay out your cut pieces individually, they are often bigger than the pattern pieces.  This is exactly why I chose to interface the collar, cuffs and front facing of this blouse.  I really love Peggy Sagers's knit interfacing, and it will give just enough stability to these areas.  Whenever I work with a fabric like this, I like to put the pattern pieces back on the fabric pieces and check for accuracy.   

OK, I just checked that pattern piece and it's the right one.  I think it's because of the short and long sleeved versions printed on one.  I have to go to work tomorrow, so I hope I can sew tomorrow night.