Blouse #3 // Watercolor Garden // Simplicity 3835 // Summer Essentials Sew Along #1

For once in my life, being short has really paid off.

Short. Now there's a 5-letter "S" word that's music to my ears.

Others:

Score!!!

Sweet!!!

Smok'n!

OK. Stretching here. Anyways. I mention the S-word because awhile ago I brazenly ordered a yard of Nani Iro cotton linen with the intention of making a blouse out of it. I really could only afford a yard, and I didn't bother to check the Simplicity 3835 yardage requirements but just assumed - yes, assumed - that it would be enough.


And it was!!! Hence the other S-word lovin'. [OK but if you are not 5'2" and do not shorten your pattern by 3" then do not follow my lead but do yourself a favor and order that extra 1/8 yard or whatever the pattern calls for]

Oh, man. I had this interview that I have been flipping out about for, like, 3 weeks ever since they called and asked me to go in to meet in person. Because lets be clear: I have never worked in much of what we would call a formal work setting before. Prior workplaces were like, we work with teenagers, wear whatever you want. Or, you are coaching from a cube and nobody can see you, we don't care if you come in your PJ's [and one woman did, and that was always a sign to not bother her OR that her birthday month was up, which was pretty much one and the same].

So anyways. Yesterday the interview was done, I was happy to sleep in my own bed again, and all I wanted to do was SEW. Sew, sew, sew. Sew I did.


I kept trying to convince myself that the cotton-linen loose weave wasn't too badly see-through, but finally common sense prevailed so I've flatlined this entire blouse which normally would make it too hot for summer except it IS Boston [and incidentally, I wore that sweater while making this because it dropped into the 50's for a blip of a day]. Flatlining has given the blouse some heft and also prevents it from wrinkling so much.

Silly me. Somehow I thought I'd have enough fabric left over for a blouse yoke, but it took some really creative cutting, plus shortening the blouse pattern by about 2 inches, in order to eke this blouse out of 1 yard of fabric.


All that remains. I cut out a size 10 back and size 12 front and am so happy with the fit, although maybe I need to move those back darts closer to the center? Dunno but a lot of the back wonkiness from last time is gone. I removed the upper chest adjustment from last time and realized that, duh, I had cinched the elastic in too tightly so it was pulling the entire dress up too high. This still fits over my head without a zipper, looks moderately fitted, and does not have that weird 'you left no bust ease' look that I am never going for but sometimes get and which must mean that I am slightly deluded about my measurements.


I admit it~! I did a massive happy dance when this was done. This is the unedited version of what Sewing With Jessica looks like. Actually, this is:


Haha, it was a wiggling happy dance.

Man, if I really get more serious about this garment sewing, I am going to seriously consider investing in a serger. I think I spend about 2 x's as long on finishing my seams as I do on the actual construction! Probably because I am massively OCD about this so every seam gets felled, frenched, or finished with bias tape.


Plans for more. Ali, I don't know if this is veering from "essentials" and into "excessive" ...