Dressy Eyelet Blouse

For this pattern I used New Look 6563 but I did a few changes from the pattern. I started with View C but decided on a lantern sleeve instead of the little cap sleeve. I have recently decided these arms were made for waggin' and that's just what they'll do, ( do you feel the beat?) so I have taken a pledge to forgo anything sleeveless or tiny cap sleeve. I think this lantern sleeve is pretty flattering for my aging arms. I LOVE the peplum. I think that is very flattering. I need to find more of that style and luckily I have seen quite a few jackets with peplums so that may be a future project. It's as if the peplum makes whatever hips are underneath seem a little smaller. Is that wishful thinking? As far as the fit, I did LOTS of adjustments. I added 3/4 inch to the neckline edge as it was much too decollete. I did a SFBA, (my saggy full boob adjustment) adjusting for a C-cup and lowering the bust point. I increased the dart size. And, most importantly, I did an S-dart adjustment. That was something new I had never tried. I really like the diffence it made in my fit. The dress form does not fill out the "cup" area but in real life it fits my boobs much better. I will be doing the S-dart from now on. French seams would be what I would normally use for this type of blouse, but the eyelet is just too "bumpy" for French seams. All seams are therefore stitched, serged, and some are top stitched.
I tried taking these pics outside, yearning for some very artful type of photo, but it seems the wind kept whipping the blouse around and the shadows, while lovely dappled light for my hostas, do not make for good fashion photos. So, back inside I came. I think I need to read Lindsay's article on photos again!
To trim the neckline, I used a double row of those tiny flowerettes. The organza is cut on the bias, folded, gathered, and then stitched down, and covered with the flowerettes. The organza is then trimmed back to show a top layer shorter than the bottom layers. I really like bias raw edge trim. There are some weird shadows on this pic as it is one that was taken outside. Once again, I can't describe how this eyelet is "silvery". The threads that make up the stitching are a metallic silver. The fabric has a silver "pearlized" look to it. None of this is evident in any of the photos. Trust me, its very metallic!


The closures I just love. First I split the fabric a little right of center front so I would have a seam to insert the folded bias organza strips into. They would make a loop for the jewelry finding I found. That finding had a circle that I stitched down by hand and that was connected by jump rings to a bar that I put in the loop. Click on the pic to see it in closer detail. There are four of these that go down the center front. Underneath I put snaps, covered snaps. I covered the snaps with some poly chiffon. This is a tutorial I did on the Everything Sewing site on how to do covered snaps. Covered snaps are such a lovely way to deal with such a mundane closure.

Yesterday I auditioned three different fabrics with the blouse for DH to comment on. I put on the blouse and then pinned the skirt fabrics around my torso. DH and I both agreed on a black linen for a skirt. I hope to get that started when I get back home.

I will be away for about a week, going to New Hampshire and Mass. on business. I hope to make a side trip to Fabric Fix and hopefully they will have some dupioni or charmeuse. They were really weak with those products the last time I visited but hopefully that has changed.