Hi-Ho, The Derry-O, The Wardrobe Takes a Blouse

I must have flowers, always, and always.

~ Claude Monet

Well, I got a blouse finished last weekend!  

I've made the pattern once before, and had problems with the neckline, so I was very careful this time and it went a bit better.  Notice that you make a bias binding from the same fabric and then use that binding to create a button loop:  

One thing that struck me as kind of odd is that the back has a center seam.  I think it is to help make the top more fitted, because neither the outer edge nor the center edge is straight.  I didn't do a great job of placing the pattern pieces for the back - I wish I didn't have those 2 relatively big flowers cut in half.  

I did a 3 step narrow hem.  The first step is to sew a row of stitches around the bottom and use those a guide for folding and ironing the hem up.  Next you sew a 2nd row of stitches just to the inside of the garment from that "fold line."  And you trim the excess fabric very close to this row of stitches:  

Finally you fold the hem up one more time and stitch all the way around, one last time.  You can see the final result here:  

Notice that I used french seams, as this fabric is somewhat sheer and frays easily.  

The sleeves have a drawstring - the pattern has you reinforcing a small area with interfacing and then adding button holes to pass the drawstring through.  

The instructions also have you cut a bias strip for the drawstrings, but I decided to try something different and I used grosgrain ribbon.  We'll see how well this works.  ;)

I finished the blouse Sunday morning and was able to wear it to our ballroom dancing lesson (over a flow-y skirt) that afternoon!  Yay!  :)

Because of the colors in the fabric, the blouse works nicely with the black, grey and brown bottoms in my new wardrobe!  Double-yay!  :)

Next up?  You'll find out tomorrow!  ;)