Late last year I cut out a blouse for myself but never got around to sewing it up. Finally I decided to either sew it or toss the pieces, so I sewed it up. It's not bad... not sure if it's wearable, but not bad.
The basic design is a no-closure waist band blouse with a curved vee neckline, Italian collar, and bell sleeves gathered into cuffs.
I really do like the sleeves; I made the cuffs just wide enough so I could slip my hands through them, rather than fuss with buttons.
But that collar!! I'm not sure what to do about it. I didn't put in a facing (although I wanted to... trouble was, I didn't cut one out last year, and now I can't find the rest of the fabric). The weight of the collar pulls the neckline open. I used a neckline width of 2 and a depth of 5; maybe this kind of collar needs a narrower neck.
Otherwise, I kinda like this style. I may make another one with a different collar, and gather the bottom just a little into the band (to make the band a bit more obvious... here it lies flat and just about disappears).
Otherwise, I kinda like this style. I may make another one with a different collar, and gather the bottom just a little into the band (to make the band a bit more obvious... here it lies flat and just about disappears).
Welmoed, your blouse is very wearable...even nice! As you know, PMB's Italian collar pattern DOES have a curved neck edge, and if it were to be sewn to a straight neckline it would probably be fine. But I have found that when I sew it to the curved V neckline, the collar pattern needs more shape. I just slashed and pivotted the front section of the collar pattern...between the shoulder and front edge...to make the collar's outer edge longer without changing the neck edge. This made mine lay better (without 'pulling' on the neckline so much)...YMMV.
ReplyDeleteFYI, you can see a photo of my altered pattern (first iteration) on my blog...Feb, 2009-- Blue test blouse. But as described in the text, that one was too curved...and I ended up ONLY slashing in that front section. HTH.
I like the blouse, what about removing the collar and binding the neckline?
ReplyDeleteSo envious of you getting one of your UFOs done! It's almost March and I haven't made good on my New Year's Resolution at ALL. Love the paisley print too.
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