This is the blouse that would not end ...

... it just goes on and on, my friend.

OK, now that you've got that song in your brain for the rest of the day. ;-)

As of last night, I had everything done except to sew the bottom hem and do the buttons/holes.

Then I tried it on again and something just wasn't right. So I walked away. Went to bed and slept even. Got up this morning, put it on again and still, it wasn't right.

I flipped open the magazine to look at the pattern photo and try to figure out what IT was (or wasn't). What exactly did I like about this particular pattern? What style elements called to me? The empire seaming, yes. The fringe ... not so much, but I went ahead and added it to mine too. Oh, wait — it's the DARTS! The darts in the photo are at an interesting angle to the empire seam. I really like that. But, when I looked at my final blouse, they're almost straight up and down. Then I tried on the muslin and there's that cool angle again. Which means that somewhere between muslin and alterations, I lost the dart angle. Rats, and double rats because ...

Of course the darts have already been sewn, pressed, and topstitched, and the empire seam has been sewn, pressed, overlocked, and topstitched. Of course.

So, here's what the darts looked like this morning.



And here's what they look like now.



Time to make dinner for the menfolk. I *will* finish this $#@&! blouse tonight. Or die trying.

15-plus days and counting

Holy cow! I never take this long to finish sewing projects. (And no, I'm still not done.) Chalk it up to other obligations and not much time spent at the sewing machine for the last couple of weeks.

Picking up where I last left you (on the edge of your seats, I know), I added more width at the biceps to my sleeve pattern, cut two new sleeves, ripped one sleeve out of the muslin, and sewed one new one in. Success. I will finish this muslin to be wearable because as I look at it, it only needs the other sleeve, hems and buttons. It would be silly to just toss a perfectly wearable blouse. I may keep it but more likely I'll donate it. But I won't finish it until after I finish the final version. I'm bored with it. I've been looking at it on my dressform for more than two weeks!

This afternoon, I spent a couple of hours adjusting the front upper and middle bodice pieces. At first, I thought the solution would be to add a bit to the bottom of the upper piece at the underbust area and scoop out a corresponding bit from the middle and so I did that. Then I pulled out my good fabric and starting laying the pattern pieces on it for cutting. I actually cut out the back upper bodice piece and then I started second-guessing my alterations. I'm glad I did because I don't think they would've worked. By adding and then scooping, I decided I was essentially making no adjustment! Duh.

So I pinned the pattern pieces together, draped them on me and started fiddling and figuring out. I knew I needed more length over the girls to get that empire seam a bit lower. If I slashed too high, the neckline would be too low. If I slashed too low, the dart and seam angle would go wonky. What I ended up with was a slash that added about 3/4" near the center front but tapered to zero at the sideseam so I wouldn't screw up the length there. Doing this, however, added 3/4" to the upper empire seamline and so the adjoining piece had to be adjusted so they would fit together. I slashed that adjoining piece vertically, starting at the underbust curve, spread it 3/4" and tapered to zero at the bottom. I didn't want to spread the entire piece evenly outward because its bottom seam has to join up with the "peplum-y" piece below it and I didn't need any more width across the waist/hips than what I'd already adjusted for earlier. With the second series of adjustments done, I trued up my seamlines and finished cutting out. I'll detail these adjustments in more details (pics) later, if/when I ever finish this darn blouse.

This is the fabric I'm using. It's a medium-weight linen. I still have lots of summer to go here in Florida even if the calendar says otherwise and so autumn sewing isn't even on the horizon yet. We tend to dress tropical here in Florida long after autumn officially rolls in.



So far, I've sewn the darts and topstitched, sewn the upper bodice to the middle, overlocked and topstitched that seam, and sewn the shoulder seams together for a quick try-on. I think it's going to work. And the topstitching looks a lot better on the solid fabric.

Progress (very little) Report

I bet you were expecting to see a photo of my finished wearable muslin. Me too. But the Sewing Gods had other plans. Or maybe it was the Flabby Arms Gods (or are they Demons?).

But first, let me back up to go in the order I sewed yesterday ...

The collar is in and bias faced, with NO HELP WHATSOEVER from the Burda instructions, tankyewvellymuch. In fact, I turned to Kwik Sew 2927 after my 7,948th read of the Burda instrux. Really, I'm usually pretty good when it comes to written instructions of any kind. Except those darn WOF instructions. I usually get the general idea and already know a good/better method even when I don't fully get their step-by-steps, but yesterday I just couldn't get past a particular sentence (I'll add it later so you can share in the crosseyed-ness) and there I sat. Stuck. I tried a few ways I thought might work, but I wasn't particularly happy with those attempts. Rip, rip, rip. So I flipped through my personal pattern catalog to see if I had anything even slightly similar. KS 2927 to the rescue and I was back on track.



Until the sleeves. They went in perfectly -- nary a pucker. Which should've been a tip-off right then and there. But since this was a muslin, I already had figured they'd go in perfectly because they don't really count. Thankfully, I did have the foresight to actually try them on my arms before overlocking the seam allowances. And that's when I discovered they were too tight. A look in the mirror also showed the neck and shoulders now bunching up horribly. Arghhh.

Time for a sleeve sacrifice. I took off the blouse and slashed the sleeves from just above the hem area straight up overarm to the shoulder seam. Ahh. Much better, and confirmation that the neck/shoulder bunching was because the too-tight sleeves couldn't get down my arm to where they needed to be.



I'm still deciding whether to re-do the sleeves for this. I have enough fabric, but I'm getting kind of sick of it at this point. I really want to move on to the real version. But, will it be Catch-22 if I don't do another sleeve test?? Of course it will. Except that it would be so much easier at this point to just make this blouse sleeveless and bind the armholes. Oh! Idea! I could do one sleeve, baste it in, and revert to Plan B — Sleeveless Wearable Muslin. Hmmm. Now that has possibilities.

On another front (pun definitely intended), I'm going to be reshaping the empire seam under the bust like in the pic below. If you look closely, you can see the blue marker line I drew on myself while wearing the muslin. That line follows my actual underbust curve. (Thanks for the nudge, Belinda.)



So that's where things are at the moment — close, but no ceeeeegar!

PSD ... no, PSA

Because I have too many other things on the endless To-Do list, I couldn't decree the whole day as a PSD (Personal Sewing Day), but starting now ... I'm decreeing a PSA (Personal Sewing Afternoon). Hopefully, I'll finish my Burda muslin and have something to report. I did work on the collar a bit last night (or this morning, depending on how you view post-midnight timeframes). I will go ahead and finish this blouse to make it wearable because the 100% cotton is comfortable, but it will be a house-blouse only. Something to wear when I don't want to get the "good ones" dirty.

First Fitting

I haven't progressed much more since my last entry. Life exploded. But I did take a couple of pics over the weekend after my first try-on with the sideseams sewn. So far, mostly so good. I think it wouldn't hurt to lower the empire seam about 1/2" but I'm still debating on that. If I put an empire seam at my true underbust, it makes the girls really prominent -- more than usual even. If I "fudge" the seam, it helps to minimize the bust. But there's a fine point between fudging and fitting. I think I'm there, but I'm not sure.

The back is also looking pretty good. I haven't yet sewn the waist darts because I prefer to fit them to me and not just where the pattern indicates.



I'm also still deciding whether I will finish this completely to make it wearable or keep it as a tester. I think that will depend on how the collar turns out. ;)