Linen Blouse, Simplicity 3789

I think Simplicity has another winner with this blouse. It is from the Khaliah Ali Collection and has the B-C-D cup options for the bodice fronts. For me, this rocked. This pattern was made out of the envelope other than the following:

• For petiting purposes I cut back the width of the collar a third of an inch. Can't have those details out of scale.
• As my upper chest, back, and shoulders are narrow I used a size 6 for those areas, morphed to an 8 in the sleeve, armscye area, and ended up a 12 at the hips. I used the C cup bodice.
  
• I baste-fitted the pattern and the only adjustment I needed to do out of the envelope was to scoop out a bit from my apex to almost the armscye. I also cut back the cap as noted below. Other than that this pattern was good to go. I usually have lots of adjustments on tops so this is wonderful.
  
• From a design standpoint, I made the sleeves 3/4 length. I also did permanent tucks which I stitched with a Parisian stitch and wing needle. The collar also got the Parisian stitch treatment. I did not do the horizontal stitching across the tucks the pattern spec'd.

Based on reviews on PR, I knew there would be issues easing in the sleeves. "Hard" linen would only make this worse so I flattened the cap by a half inch at the center dot. Then I went thru a whole process before putting in the sleeve.
First I did double gathers on the sleeve. Normally I would put one on the outside of the stitch line, but with hanky linen this can mark. So they are both in the seam allowance. These gathers were then steamed down over my trusty sleeve mitt.




Next the sleeve is pinned into the garment and then steamed again over a ham.

Next, I baste between the two gathering lines and STEAM AGAIN! You can see the gathers disappearing each time. The sleeve is then stitched in with the sleeve on the machine bed, garment up, and the walking foot disengaged. STEAMED ONE MORE TIME and you get the results you see above.

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I can't wait till Spring. Sewing linen helps me deal with Cabin Fever up here in the Adirondacks...........Bunny.......ETA: Just wanted to add that the color is that pretty dark olive like you see below, not the washed out brown above.