Smocked Silk Blouse Completed!

Yippee! First I want to say, I love this pattern, Simplicity 4122. It has a fit I like that kind of emphasizes my "petite-ness" and it offers lots of opportunity for embellishment with that wonderful yoke. Speaking of that yoke, I did not do a muslin for this. Of course the time I don't I come up with a fit issue. My back neck to waist is very slender and the back yoke really needs some width taken out to fit me better. I will definitely make this again and have written notes on the pattern re that adjustment.

The fabric is a very light silk crepe de chine purchased eons ago, maybe at Fabric Fix, maybe even Levine's in Manchester, NH. To smock the yoke it needed to be beefed up. So, I backed it with FusiKnit. Luv that stuff! It pleated beautifully with nice little plump pleats after that. If you scroll down you will see how I pleated this in an earlier post. The pleats were than fanned out and blocked to fit the yoke pattern. I faced the yoke area with cotton batiste from the stash, embroidering the edge with a machine featherstitch.

Once the yoke issues were dealt with it was really pretty simple from there. I did race thru and forgot to attach the piping into the yoke but I think that was for the better now that it's done. I immediately thought of some raw edge ruffling as I had seen on some high end blouses recently but proceeded to try all sorts of alternatives. Using anything raw edge was just contra all my sewing rules. But I also had this recent revelation that I am dressing a little matronly lately so I decided to go for it. The raw edge ruffle was ripped from the fabric and then backed with FusiKnit.

I am really pleased with the finished result and am thinking of making a green twill pencil skirt to go with it. I think that will make a nice summer look to wear around. I do wish I had started this in April to enter into the Pattern Review silk blouse contest but had to toss up whether to do this or a bag. I am going for the bag for the contest. More on that later...Oh, the best picture of the blouse was the one with my head cut off. What can I say???