Well, the blouse was awful!!! When I said I had "finalized the pattern", I suppose that was wishful thinking! duh...it seems that EVERY decision I made was the wrong one!

I forgot to lower the back neck depth, which is vital to the correct fit! Plus, as this is an Empire style, I was a bit uncertain as to HOW HIGH to make that Empire waist seam...so I erred on the low side. I had also chosen to convert the bust dart to gathers instead of sewing it as a dart. Plus, I decided I had created too much overlap of the bodice area (crossover above the Empire seam), so at the last minute before printing the pattern, I had lessened the amount of crossover. ..which resulted in 'over exposure' in the cleavage area.

Can you visualize this?

• Because the back neck wasn't cut low enough, the whole front was 'pushed' more forward on my body than designed to be.
• The Empire waist seam was lower than it should have been, resulting in-
• 'poofs' of gathers on each side of my lower front rib cage.
• and lots of skin showing in the too-low Vneck!

It was NOT a pretty site! (there are NO pictures of that mess! )

So I spent part of last weekend ripping this blouse apart. Yep, the whole thing...topstitched, sewn and serged...all out! I now have the individual pieces again laying on the cutting table and have 'corrected' the pattern, so will recut them to raise the waist and lower the back neck. What a pain!

Why not just toss it into the garbage? you might ask. I am too attached to the outcome...I have already SEEN the blouse in my head and would like to have it! I am a Taurus...stubborn, ya know.

But this week has been spent on other pursuits and the pieces are still waiting for my attention!