I hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend! We get a bank holiday Monday here for May day. I got someone to fill in for me at the organ on Sunday so I had three whole days off. Unthinkable. It turns out that I really needed it. We didn’t really go anywhere but we did lots of little things. It doesn’t feel like I did a lot of sewing but I must have, because I finished this blouse. I’m putting it with a finished-in-April skirt.
The blouse is a vintage pattern that I made again with modifications. The skirt is self-drafted. About the blouse!
I used 2m of Tilda cotton from Rubanesque. It is so pretty I literally became weak at the knees when I set eyes on it. I knew it had to be a spring blouse.
I modified the collar to make the tips rounded because I felt it would suit the print better.
I also adapted the cuffs to make them rounded and open. I had to pare down the shape of the sleeves because I didn’t want them too wide without a placket and closure. I sacrificed the tidiness of seaming the sleeves and then enclosing the seam into the cuffs for sewing the cuffs flat with all the top stitching and them seaming the sleeves. It looks fine from the outside. If I were to do it again, I would probably suffer through topstitching the cuffs with an already seamed sleeve.
The buttons I salvaged from another unwearable blouse. Now, for the skirt! I dug out my drafting notes from five whole years ago and drafted this up. I pity my younger self as I took the drafting course without ever having sewn any sort of clothing! It made a WHOLE lot more sense this time around. Unfortunately, when I was cutting out my pattern pieces I managed to chop off the side seam allowance and only discovered when I could barely get the skirt on. Thankfully I was able to salvage it through some manipulation of the darts but gosh! Never again! I basically made up the pleat bit by holding my muslin up against me and saying, ok, I’d like my pleat to go from about here to here and be about this long. Turns out, that’s kind of the way to do it.
My mum helped me get my pleat to behave itself. I did myself no favours in the way I’d hemmed it but I will know for again!
I actually made this skirt to go with my
It is a peculiar outfit! It is a bit dull for a bright May day such as today. Maybe later in the summer with hot pink tights? I should probably just wear the cape with jeans also – although I put it on Sunday and Alb asked me if I was going to meet Batman :/ He does not see capes as a proper item of clothing unless for dressing up. Isn’t that what clothes are for anyway?!
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