Blue Blouse-part 2, completed

As promised, here is the finished blue blouse that I talked about before :



It turned out to be wearable after all, although there are MANY things I wish I had done differently! Everyone at my sewing guild told me NOT to mention them...that no one (but me) would see these 'mistakes'.

But I see them.

And, of course, I will mention them! :)

Let's start with the button front. I want my front button extension to be slightly smaller than it drafts in PMB with smaller button sizes, especially if I am sewing the buttonholes vertically instead of horizontally, which I often do. Generally, I want the button extension to be about the same as the button width. Well, in PMB, if I draft with a 0.5" button, I get a .75" extension (I don't know *why*...drafting for a 1" button gives a 1" extension! anyway...). I usually try to remember to trim off some of the extension, but this time I forgot. So I have a flappy front.

Also, I used the button placement that drafted with the program...again, a mistake. I usually draft an extra button or two, so the last button is not so close to the hem of the garment, but I forgot to check that and just mindlessly marked the placement of buttons according to the placement and number on the printed pattern! duh. My fault.

Also, after washing this blouse, the front facing shrank just enough to cause the front hem to want to turn under/pull up...I hate it when that happens! Perhaps if I don't point it out, no one will notice...?

The modified Italian collar did work out better than on previous attempts, but next time I will even add a little more length to that outer edge when I slash the collar pattern between the shoulder and CF.

The waist is no longer too tight on this blouse...not because of the new diet, but more because I raised it upward a bit by shifting/changing the relationships of my pattern pieces!

The Back Shoulder Slope is still too long, but I will have to live with it on this blouse and change it for the next one. That results in a baggy back armhole area...and excess fullness in the back of the sleeve (it kinda collapses!).

The Front armholes are not the right shape on this blouse. Remember, I sewed those princess seams deeper (to increase dart size) and cut the armholes lower, and generally made several changes to the armholes.... I obviously didn't get the lower curve shaped just right! Also, I generally need to 'scoop' the front armholes that PMB gives me anyway, and I didn't do this on this blouse. You can see this fault results in folds of excess fabric in front of the lower armscye...next time!

For this blouse, I lowered the sleeve cap height by 0.5" (setting -.5) and if I had lowered it even more, tis blouse would have been more comfortable to wear. Since finishing this blue blouse, I have reworked a few measurements and sewn several test blouses (of septic paper..no pics!), and the test with the sleeve cap lowered 1" gives even better arm mobility! I will try a cap height of -1.5" for the next test....how low can ya go?

Before, I thought I might have reduced my shoulder widths too much on this test blouse, but I have decided that is not the case after all. This shoulder placement is fine...it is the lowered cap height of the sleeve that is key here...not the shoulder widths! Ok, that is ten years of insight in a nutshell!



I generally sew on my buttons by machine, using transparent tape to hold the buttons in place.

The End.

Now off to sew another test!

I am working on an Empire-waisted blouse...more later!