Thursday, July 17, 2014

Practical summer blouse

Roses from a Victorian Garden
Albert Williams

With unusual events occurring in the past couple months, I have finally been able to get back to posting and sewing.  I have decided to update my blouse wardrobe for summer wear.  I have found a new favorite pattern that I want to share the ease of working with it.

I try to find fabric on sale as I think that is the best use of the funds God has provided me with and so I go to our Hancock Fabric store and JoAnns Fabrics and Crafts.  I like to buy patterns from the major pattern books on sale as well  as they are exorbitantly priced otherwise.

We have a local quilt shop that has sale fabrics,  100% cotton,  for around $6 to $7 per yard.  It is difficult to find quality cotton anymore.  I chose some from this shop that would wear well and go with skirts I have.

I purchased  Butterick 6085  and found the pattern has few pieces and easy to sew.  The only problem I noticed was the sleeve didn't have enough ease in it when setting in so I would suggest reading this blog as she explained how she took care of that problem.  I used a  sleeve from Simplicity  9210 ( which is no longer in print), as she suggested in her blog to make a better fit in the sleeve cap. Once you get that fixed, the pattern goes together quickly as there is no facing to sew to the blouse front as it is cut with the front so when it is finished it is nice and flat rather than having a seam there which tends to pucker sometimes.



The picture below shows the difference in sleeves.  I made my first blouse from the pattern using the original sleeve pattern that came with it. The fit was OK and I will wear it.  I adjusted the next  to about half of the difference  between the two patterns.  The first picture shows  how low the top curve of the sleeve is compared to the Simplicity 9210 underneath it.

 This next picture shows the difference of the underarm seam when the top of the sleeve patterns are matched.
The bottom picture shows where I cut my underarm seam as I didn't want too much fullness either since the first blouse using the original  sleeve pattern wasn't too far off for my liking.


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