Marfy 1940 - Silk Blouse

This is the seventh item in my SWAP. It would have been the eighth, but I took the knit dress out because it wasn't making me happy and I didn't want to wear it. It wasn't really my colour and hadn't come out very well.

This blouse is the exact same pattern as the animal print sheer that I made a month or two back and has the same modifications; that is, sleeves from a different pattern and a tie collar. This one has a much longer tie, its seventy inches, which seemed huge when I was cutting it out but seems about right now that its finished.

The fabric is a stretch silk from Rosenbergs and is apparently ex-Janet Reger. The combination of stretch in the silk plus the natural propensity for silk charmeuse to be slithery, slidey, and generally disobedient, meant this took some time to sew. The cutting out had to be done single layer and that took an entire afternoon on its own. The seams were difficult to keep straight, and unstretched, which can be seen a little on the back. The flash has reflected off the silk and made a perfectly good shirt look rather crumpled unfortunately. I promise its not quite so buckled and crumpled in real life.

Seams sewn with the overlocker (to minimise stretching out the seams), except the sleeves which were sewn on the machine to avoid disaster striking. The placket at the cuff is hand sewn using a hand rolled hem (sort of, it was my first attempt so one placket is considerably neater than the other). The bottom hem is serged then sewn up on the machine using a quarter inch hem.

Buttons are vintage (or at the very least rather old, since they were apparently 25 pence for ten whenever they were first sold).

Button holes were nerve wracking but none of them actually went wrong, and I managed to cut them open without any mishaps, despite the buttonholes being quite small and my buttonhole chisel being large in comparison. RuthieK gave me this chisel and every time I use it it makes me happy. Its one of the most fabulous sewing room gadgets I've ever had. Sometimes its the simplest things that make you happiest isn't it?

Yesterday afternoon I had a bit of a rethink of the SWAP, prompted by the removal of the knit dress and the realisation that whilst I like to wear knit tops, I don't much enjoy making them.

So, the SWAP so far contains:

Two jackets

Two pairs of trousers (currently unhemmed but otherwise completed)

Two blouses

One Skirt.

I need one more "paired" item and two single items. I had a tidy out in the stash cupboard yesterday and found some twill that wanted to become jeans and would work really well with the SWAP so I'm leaning towards two pairs of jeans, which leaves one knit top, and one item yet to be decided. I wanted to make a coat but when I laid out my chosen fabric, I didn't have enough. Its a bit late in the day to be changing my plans as well, so I'm going to have to make my mind up quite soon what I am going to do.

Next up: jeans and a knit top.

Coming soon: stripey sweater. I've knit this as far as the waist and am very pleased with it so far. It fits well and looks the way I envisaged it.