Thank goodness this blouse worked! That’s all I have to say! …
Haha! Joking! You should know by now that of course I have a ton more stuff to say. : P
This is my last Vintage Pattern Pledge make of 2015 ~ Simplicity 2483, a 1948 peasant blouse ~ and I hit my goal of five different vintage or vintage reprinted patterns made up from my pattern stash. Yay!
I’m actually super relieved that this blouse turned out so nicely. Mostly because, once again, I ended up having little to no time to get this project done. Christmas was arriving with the speed of a bullet, and I had tons of events to go to, things to do, etc. And you know what else?
I had to grade a pattern for the first time. Yup. I went there…
With all the sewing disasters that have been dogging me through the last half of this year, I really don’t know what I was thinking except that I really wanted a peasant blouse for my Christmas outfit this year?? Simplicity 2483, Veiw 3 was perfect, except my pattern was for a 32 Bust.
….. Yes. Not going to fit. So I just, ya’know, graded it up using this tutorial I found on the interwebs.
I’m surprised it worked, but you know what else ~ I did end up sewing a toile for this. I was way too freaked out about the pattern grading, and the fact that to get my perfect fabric I had to pay $22.00 a metre! *faint!* (ô д ô) I think it was worth it, but you can bet your buttons that I wasn’t going to cut into that precious print without making sure I wasn’t going to stuff it up.
Good thing I did too, because some how I graded too much into the pattern, and with the FBA I also added, the toile was huge on me!
So I cut the back, the sleeves and the back yoke using the original pattern pieces. Thank you Charlotte for eating my traced pattern pieces.
Then I cut the front and the front yoke with my newly adjusted pattern pieces from which I’d removed all the grading, but left the FBA.
Still with me?
Because the pattern is actually too small for me, the cutting the back from the original pattern turned out to ~ surprise, surprise, make the back too small. Um. Yeah. Whoops.
I decided that, instead of folding over the back panels in the centre to get the interfacing for the button bands, I would sew an extra strip of fabric to each side of the back opening, fold them over, top stitch them down so that they wouldn’t peak out at all and give myself the room I needed for the buttons and the button holes that way.
It worked!
Up to the point when I realised that now the yoke was also too small for the back of the blouse. With the button band modification, the yoke was too short and didn’t reach the edges of the blouse any more, so I had to taper it down to meet the top edge of the blouse, rather than being the full height with an extra button on it as it was supposed to be. You can see the gap in the photo below, where the lace ends, the yoke ends. I think it still looks okay though! It now has a pretty scoop along the back neckline which I like. Alls well that ends well.
₍₍ ◟(• ε •๑)◞ ₎₎ ₎₎
*whew*
Sometimes I wonder why I can’t sew through a pattern just the way it’s supposed to go, but then I realise that it’s mostly my fault for not thinking every step through clearly and realising the implications of what I am doing until it is too late to fix it! (￣。￣;)
I really liked sewing this pattern though. For the most part, everything went together really smoothly. The blouse is pieced in a way that makes sense {yay!} and allows for a fairly straight forward construction process. I left off the ruffle, but decided to go with some cream lace trim instead, which I think was the right addition to break up the busy pattern and add a touch of interest to the yoke detail.
Also; top stitching!!
I had so much fun top stitching this blouse. I know that sounds absolutely ridiculous, but I discovered a new-to-me trick that experienced sewers probably already know ~ and it’s awesome! Seriously, it really changed my top stitching method.
I used to try to top stitch with my machine on the slowest setting and be as smooth as I could. This is still a good idea, but at time I had a thought ~ what if I was to set my needle over to the right so that the line of top stitching was at the very edge of my material?
GAME CHANGER!! ✧*｡٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و✧*｡
I don’t know if you can see from that close up of the back ~ but my top stitching came out nearly perfect. Not because I did anything great, just because I moved that needle over! When I did that, the fabric fits neatly along the edge of my presser foot, the stitching is right at the edge of the fabric, and that helps it all to feed through accurately. The top stitching came out so neat and tidy all over my blouse, that now I want to top stitch all the things because it. looks. that. good.
And makes me feel totally profesh. Which I am not. But I feel it. And that feels super cool. I can’t say it too many times: Peoples! Move that needle over when you top stitch!
~ Project Details ~
- Year: 1948
- Pattern: Simplicity 2483
- Fabric: 2 meters of quilting cotton
- Notions: 6 red bow buttons
- Time to complete: One and a half days
- Make again? Yessss!! I love peasant blouses, and I want them in all the colours. This pattern turned out so nicely I guess I’ll just have to make it in all the colours!
- Wear again? Yup! Well, once December rolls around again. Gold printed holly is pretty much relegated to Christmas time only wear. But I will wear the heck out of it come the Christmas holidays!
- Total Cost: $54.00 I think? I lost the reciept… Ouch though for a Christmas blouse!! I mean, I love the fabric, but the price per meter is not for the faint of heart. And no, I didn’t total that up when I was buying the components. I tend to see what I want, buy it, and count the cost later. I need to work on that…
So what’s the final verdict ~ novelty Christmas prints for the win, or save it for the table cloths and tree skirts?? (*≧▽≦)
xox,
bonita
༺ ♡ ༻
Holly Bow Fascinator Come Whimsy | Me Made, 2015
Deck the Halls Brooch | Erstwilder {sold out}
Gold Holly Peasant Blouse | Me Made, 2015
The Red Christmas Skirt | Sammy Dress
Hoop Petticoat | eBay
Vintage Ruched Gloves | eBay
Snowy Lattice Knee-Hi | Old
Santa Cruz Beach Heel | Modcloth, Old
༺ ♡ ༻
Find me:
Instagram | missbjvear
Pinterest | bjvear
Ravelry | BJVear
Twitter | bjvear
Youtube | Bonita Vear
No comments:
Post a Comment