Its a sickness! I’ve made another blouse.

I bought 3 more metres of this gorgeous fabric from M&M, in the hope that I would be able to get 2 blouses out of it. As the fabric is just a mere 110cm wide it takes a bit of juggling. As you can see the back piece of the bodice is overhanging the fabric a bit, this doesn’t matter as I don’t have the button fastening down the back so usually end up cutting off several inches down the centre back seam anyway. I thought I might have to put the sleeve piece on sideways in order to fit it all in but happily using the shortest sleeve pattern piece I was able to get it on right way round. The picture shows the cuff piece (top left hand corner) in the sideways position but I actually managed to get that on right way round too. It is a bit of a tight squeeze with the bodice pieces but they do all fit onto just under 150cm.

How to get two tops out of 3 metres of narrow fabric!

Now, I don’t have an overlocker but I am so far getting away with just zigzagging the edges. I have also gotten better at this each time I make a blouse. Getting pretty neat now.

neck facing

centre back seam. Looks better in real life than it does here!

I really like the inside of my blouses, the finish is quite lovely. Even if I do say so myself.

It is very similar to this one except the sleeves are shorter now.

The sleeve cuffs gave me a bit of trouble on this one, but only on one sleeve. I just couldn’t get it to attach nicely, in the end I did what Anne from the first Great British Sewing Bee used to do with tricky fabrics and situations, and I talked very firmly to it, and it eventually went on OK. Not perfect but OK.

I have more fabric for more blouses, probably another four I think (and I’m thinking about buying some more of the white cotton eyelet), but I might need a bit of a break from making these for a little while. Lets see what I come up with next.