Edited to add: Thank you to the lovely commenters who have been emailing me with your comments! Oops, my comments have been switched off again somehow :{ Should be all fixed up now.
This month I chose Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing for the One Per Month Challange, hosted by Chaletgirl.
Half way through March I realised I still hadn't chosen a book for this months challenge,
so I wanted something fairly quick and easy. I settled on the Summer Blouse as I've been wanting something light but with longer sleeves for the coming cooler months ahead.
I was browsing through a small fabric shop not far from where I live when I happened upon this gorgeous green lightweight cotton.
I have no idea what it's called so if you can shed any light on it please share.
When I asked the shop owner all she divulged was that it is 100% cotton! I could see it was cotton but it has little bobbly bits all over it, surely this has a specific name?? Anyhow............
As soon as I saw this fabric I knew it would become my new blouse. I am always professing that green is my favourite colour and yet I own very few items of clothing which are green.
I cannot tell you enough how happy I am with how it turned out - it is, dare I say it, perfect!
Exactly how I envisaged it!!!
I have to confess that although I love to sew and do make clothes for both myself and my girls, clothes making isn't my favourite kind of sewing. But now I get why some people love to make their own clothes. If you get the fit right, the colour, the style, the cut you love, well it really makes it worth while.
Now if you are at all familiar with the version of this blouse in Weekend Sewing, you will see that mine is somewhat different.
After deciding on this project and buying the fabric I decided to do a little search to see what other sewist's/blogger's had come up with. To say I was dissapointed is an understatement.
Most looked nothing like the version in the book, and many of the lovely ladies who had blogged about their Summer Blouses commented that the pattern/instructions were, how should I say it, in need of some tweeking. Hmmmmmmmmm......yet I was determined to go on. I had a picture in my minds eye which I didn't want to let go of.
So, I compiled a list of the various comments/issues others had about the pattern and set to work improving on them.
So in short, I changed the neckline, moved the darts, took in the sides by about 5cm each, shortened the placket by half, bound the neckline differently than instructed, shortened the sleeves and finished them with bias binding as per the neckline and finally I finished the bottom hem just by overlocking the raw edge and turning a 6mm hem to keep as much length as possible.
Phew, I know, can you believe it?? I'm almost tempted to rename it the Autumn blouse it's so different!
And yes dear friends you did read correctly up there, I overlocked the edges. Thats right I now have an overlocker. A Janome MyLock 204D to be precise. Actually I've had it a couple of months but have been a little frightened of using it. I decided this would be it's maiden voyage and boy oh boy am I happy. I used it to make almost the whole blouse, only using my machine to sew the binding and placket.
While that baby was humming along I felt love I tell you.
So I love every aspect of my new blouse, right down to the vintage, self covered button which I found amongst my button collection, passed on to me from mum. So this little button, covered by my mother some forty odd years ago for some forgotten project has now found it's way onto my new blouse - finishing it off, well, just perfectly!
I also want to mention that I've just bought the make it perfect lazy day hat pattern from modern retro textiles.
My nephew has reqested a hat for his birthday and I've heard only good things about the make it perfect patterns.
I did a search and found that modern retro textiles not only had it the cheapest I could find but they also had free postage within Australia and super quick delivery! As an added bonus Samantha also threw in ten little fabric samples from the Sandi Henderson Meadowsweet line - lovely!
