Monday 8 February 2016

Third Time Lucky Blouse

 This blouse has been  very long time in the Last year, I found a Liberty 1960's shirtdress in the opshop. Of course I bought it, knowing I could turn it into something wearable.















Attempt one: I detached the bodice and skirt, added some darts to the bodice, as it was a few sizes too big, then I sewed it all back together. I wore it like this for a while, until one day y husband admitted it looked a bit frumpy. I'd been thinking the same, the whole thing didn't fit well, so back to the sewing pile.

 Attempt two: M6696, straight skirt version. The whole thing was a jigsaw of pattern pieces, but I got it made up until the point where you handsew down the button plackets. But I had forgotten to account for hips. My hips are quite large, and I had stupidly cut a 12 all over, where I should have graded the skirt out. There was no way that skirt was fitting down there. So I had to unpick all that work. Luckily I caught it before the handsewing had happened.









Third time lucky: using the skirt fabric, I cut an extension, and attached it to the bottom of the blouse section. Finally, wearable.

M6696 makes a great blouse pattern, and I'm hoping to make it again. I went with a mandarin collar partially because of fabric shortage, and partially for something different. I realise now mandarin collars really only work when the placket is curved to open the shirt at the neck. But I found a little gold brooch and wore the shirt completely buttoned up. It was comfortable, and looked good.

The buttons are from the original shirt dress. I am so happy this is finally finished and wearable. Whilst I would have loved it as a shirt dress, it's going to be a great blouse.



8 comments:

  1. Great blouse! Third time's a charm!

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  2. Well done you got there in the end. And worth the wait as it looks lovely on you.

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  3. That's looking great! And I like your determination to make something beautiful from this fabric.

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    1. Thanks :) Isn't the fabric great? I love liberty prints. No just to work out what to do with the leftovers

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  4. The dress looks wonderful modified as a blouse - so pretty.

    Thank you for your comment on my blog - I can see you would be right at home in England, in a village somewhere. And with your love of medieval history, you would have endless hours of fascination. Good luck with your future plans...

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