Marfy 1913 - Navy Silk Charmeuse

This one is part of Leisa's sewalong for Marfy Patterns on her blog A Challenging Sew.  I'm a bit behind though and am less sewing along as sewing in the wake of, this event. 

However, if anyone reading this has wanted to sew a Marfy but is too nervous to begin, I can wholeheartedly recommend this Sewalong for instilling confidence.  Leisa's posts are very thorough and I've really enjoyed learning new ways to sew this pattern, which I had made once before.

One thing that Leisa did was add sleeves, which is always a good thing in my view but I hadn't been able  to work out how since the armholes were very cut away on the original pattern.  Leisa tells you how though I must admit to having cheated in this regard.  Whilst looking for a pattern with a suitable sleeve to use, I found another Marfy pattern, which I'd made in unsuitable fabric but had kept the muslin as it had possibilities.  When I compared this pattern with 1913 it was the exact same pattern except the shoulder seams were longer to accomodate a sleeve, it had a different collar (which I didn't like much when I'd made it) and it had sleeves.  This saved me quite a bit of faffing around with redrawing the shoulder and provided the sleeve I needed.

The sleeve was a bit tight though, so I've added two inches through the centre to give me gathering at the sleeve head and extra width at the bicep, to hopefully give a more relaxed look to the top.
The back was also a bit narrow for me, so I've opened the back up an inch, but hinged at the shoulder so the shoulder seam didn't lengthen.  I've also added half an inch to the centre back and cut the top on the fold.  Leisa shows a very clever way to make and finish the back slash on a garment cut on the fold by making a dart. 
http://achallengingsew.typepad.com/my-blog/2014/01/blouse-sew-along-pt-2-back-slash-options-sleeve-thoughts-and-adjustments.html

I already had a cut away section at the centre back neck to fit the collar to my narrow neck, so this worked wonderfully well for making a back that will hopefully fit my small neck whilst also accommodating a very wide back. 

This is the back slash finished.  I had to sew my seam allowances down with tiny hand stitches as my fabric was very slippery and wouldn't stay turned in on its own as Leisa's did.   However, I am very pleased with this as its my first attempt at the process, and the silk isn't the most well behaved I've worked with.  Though not the worst either.  Its not pinned to the dress form here and had slid apart, but the finished thing has a stand collar and will have the two edges of the slash flush with each other when completed. 

And this is as far as I've got with it.  The side seams and shoulder seams are done.  I used a french seam and its come out rather nicely.  The gathering threads are in for the front but not actually gathered up properly yet.  Next up is the collar, but I'm still trying to decide whether the collar wants beading or not, so I've come to a halt whilst I consider this.