My wardrobe needs more woven tops. I made a ton of tees a while back but have very few dressier tops. I also do not have enough tops with full length sleeves. I tend to favour 3/4 sleeves and while they look lovely, they don't work in the middle of a cold, windy winter.
So I went through my Ottobre mags and this is the one I found that appealed to me. I like the pussy bow as it makes a nice change from a collar. I also like the soft gathers from the front yoke and the sleeves with a bit of fullness for drama.
In the stash I found a piece of georgette (I think?). It would be a polyester but has a nice drape and weight. The print is a bit darker than I normally go for but I really liked it when I saw it. I bought it at East Coast fabrics last year. The only issue with the busy print is that it is hard to see the details of the bow.
The only alteration I made to the pattern was that I did not make plackets and the narrow buttoned cuffs. I thought it would be difficult to make the narrow cuff in this fabric so I decided to keep it simple and just sewed a casing at the sleeve-end and inserted narrow elastic. I quite like the effect.
Pretty proud of the pattern matching across the blouse and the sleeves.
This photo of the shirt was taken before I had made the buttonholes. I used very small black buttons to blend in with the shirt as I didn't want the buttons to detract from the bow.
The bad news was that my automatic buttonhole failed and would not complete the last return row and last bar tack. <insert sad face> So the shirt sat idling while my machine was in the shop (for far too long!) As the length of the visit away lengthened, I asked a friend if I could use her machine to complete the buttonholes so did end up finishing it and have worn it weekly since then.
I did borrow a sewing machine during this time. This sewing machine my mother bought in the early 60's. We cleaned and oiled it and it was quite usable for straight stitch but I could not get the zigzag stitch to balance properly so I am thinking I might take it in for a service soon. It is really a very fancy machine, which I did not realise when I learned to sew on it when I was 14. It has all the cogs needed to make a tonne of different stitches and will wind a bobbin while you keep sewing!
I have downloaded the manual for this machine as the manual that my Mum gave me was for a slightly different model. If I spend some time going through that I might get the stitch balance fixed.
I have a dream to make a frock for myself from a 60's pattern. A 1960's machine and a 1960s pattern for this 1960's baby. I like it.
Ciao kittens, more soon...
