Poetry on a Stand

OK, not the most imaginative blog title. ;-)

It's done! Yay!! And I love it!

I'll share more details later when I write up a proper review but in the meantime, here are some photos of my finished CWC knock-off Poet Blouse, on Zillie. I'm planning to wear this on Christmas Day, probably with my green knit Marrakesh pants. Or jeans. I'll try to remember to get a pic of me in it, before I spill something on myself. ;-)





The fabric is cotton poplin with a bit of Lycra. It wrinkles easily, but not as easily as it would without the Lycra. I think this blouse needs a bit of the rumpled look to really embrace the "Poet" look, so I'm not going to fret about the wrinkles. The Lycra keeps it from going completely limp, which is a Good Thing. I interfaced the plackets, collar, stand and cuffs.

Funny thing when I was sewing on the buttons — I had all 3 buttons sewn on the front and one sleeve done. When I got to the second sleeve, I realized I had completely forgotten to topstitch that cuff. That's what happens when you work in snatched batches of time. So, there I was thinking I was already done and I had to put it to the machine one more time to finish that last cuff. At least I noticed before I left the house in it.



The trim is lacy elasticized rickrack I've had in the stash forever. I still have TONS of this so you'll be seeing it for years.



In a couture world, the inside edges of the plackets would be turned under and clean finished. In my world, they're serged. ;-)



I also trimmed the honkin' big dart with the serger so the show-through is not a honkin' big dart uptake.



These are the patterns I used — McCall's 5556 for most of it, and McCall's 5673 for the 3/4 length cuffed sleeves. For M5556, I changed the shape of the bottom of the placket, added gathers below the placket, back waist darts, and left off the faced hems. I also reshaped the collar points into curves. For the sleeve, I widened them at the bicep, which also meant widening the cuff to match. I also added a loop closure instead of the buttonhole called for in the pattern.



This will probably be my last blog post before Christmas, so to all who celebrate, Merry Christmas! To all my Jewish readers, a belated Happy Hannukah! And Happy Holidays to everyone else!

Still Sewing Away

No pictures today, but I have been making steady, if slow, progress on my CWC Poet Blouse knock-off. I think I fixed the dart poof that was bothering me. I'm still not happy with their actual placement — they're too horizontal — but I'm not willing to rip them out and re-angle them either. I think my annoyance will fade once the blouse is finished.

Last night and this afternoon I worked on the sleeves. The cuffs are on. I added button loops as closures to match the front loops. I'm just about ready to sew them into the armholes. After that, it will be downhill. I even made a stop at Joann's for buttons (success!) while out and about running a million and two errands. But I'm done with my errands and don't plan to venture out again until Thursday night, for our annual family Christmas Eve tour of house lights in various neighborhoods.

I'm really happy with this blouse. I think it's going to be one of my most favorite things I've sewn. I just hope I don't screw up now … you know, like a big scorch mark when I'm pressing seams or some other disaster like that. I must say it's been quite stressful working with all this white. It's been good for me, though. The "stress" is actually making me relax and take my time, if that makes any sense.

With any luck, I should have a finished blouse to show for my next post.

The Only White Here Is In the Sewing Room

I always feels pangs of slight jealousy when the first big snow of the year hits the East Coast. I'm a NY-er by birth, grew up in Connecticut, and had plenty of snow during those years. The big Saturday storm looks pretty in all the blog and news photos I've seen, but in my heart I know better and I'm glad to be 1,000 miles away from it. It is supposed to hit the 30s here tonight, so not only do I commiserate with my East Coast friends in spirit, I'll also be sympathizing in the flesh too. ;-)

Progress continues on the CWC Poet Blouse knock-off. It's going well so far. I'm about to attach the sleeve cuffs and then insert the sleeves. And once again, I'll need buttons. I'm going to try to make do with what's in the button bin, but I really wanted prettier shank-style buttons. Though not enough to trek out to Joann's anytime soon. (Surely J's has suitable white buttons?) Maybe I have an old blouse in my closet I can pilfer from. I'm also pretty sure I'm going to have to mess with the bust darts since right now they seem too pointy. I haven't sewn up the sideseams yet or really tried it on, so maybe they're not as bad as I think. In fact, I may just go up and pin the sideseams right now and try on the darn thing before I go further with the sleeves.

Angie asked about the upper back tuck-thingie I showed last post. Angie, from the pics I've seen, you have square shoulders. The fold of fabric you describe is usually due only to square shoulders, so you should first alter for those and see if that does it. I have square shoulders too, but also an erect back. Altering only for square shoulders doesn't solve all of the problem for me. I still need to remove length at the upper back for collared shirts. I'm sure I need to do it for other shirts too, but it's really only when there's a collar that it's uncomfortably obvious. I don't make (wear) a whole lot of collared shirts, so this has been a slower realization for me than my other regular alterations. Besides being hot in the summer, the other reason I don't wear a lot of collared shirts is because the collar has always bugged me in the back. Hmm. Maybe I'm on to something. ;-)

Instead of Christmas Shopping

I hate malls even when it's not the holidays. So any excuse to stay away from stores today works for me and I've spent most of the day in the sewing room. (I should be sewing gifts, but I'm taking a cue from The Selfish Seamstress! - L.O.V.E. that blog!)

I'm trying to stay focused on the garments I lined up in my "on deck" pile here and I'm doing pretty well, having made 4 so far. Not all were complete winners but at least they're off the list.

Right now I'm working on copying the Coldwater Creek Poet Blouse, using the McCall's pattern below with 3/4 sleeves swiped from another McCall's pattern.





After 2 FBAs (Full Bust and Full Bicep), I've made the muslin out of old sheets and tweaked it, and am now going to cut the real fabric. Per the pattern, it's much too long to be the CWC blouse so I'll be chopping off length …



… and taking up excess at the back and shoulder, as shown below. For the back, it's the opposite of a round back alteration and I find I need it in most any blouse with a real collar and almost all Jalie knit top patterns, except on knit patterns I just scoop the back neckline instead. For someone who spends most of the day at the computer, I'm surprised I still have such erect posture. My mother should be proud - she "scolded" me to stand up straight my whole childhood. ;-)



Changing the front placket area to a squared-off bottom mostly worked, but I made the inset pieces too short and I think there's a bit too much gathering. That's what muslins are for, right? I've fixed the pattern pieces for that area and hopefully it will now work as I planned. It's zigzagged together in lieu of buttons on the muslin.



I debated cutting one more muslin, but I just don't have it in me. It's not a super-fitted blouse, so I should be able to fix things as I go, if still needed. I hope I don't have to eat my words because I really want to have this blouse in my wardrobe.

So that's what I've been doing today, instead of Christmas shopping. Bah Humbug. ;-)

Hot Patterns Tie Me Down Top

Finished top below. Review with more pics, on PR here.