It’s been a long time… There was I thinking in my last post that I would all of a sudden have tonnes of time to spare for sewing and knitting. How wrong I was! New job, university exams, essay writing, a succession of houseguests occupying the sewing room, and my dad visiting for a fantastic holiday aboard a narrowboat in Wales all intervened to make sure I only did the tiniest bit of crafting; and what I did make I didn’t have time to blog.
Since my exams finished a fortnight ago I’ve been in intensive crafting mode – all of the million things I’ve been itching to sew for months are suddenly exploding into reality.
But I’ll start slowly on this feast of sewing.
I made this blouse in March out of my favourite Liberty tana lawn, “Elevenses”. I still have reams of the fabric left over, in two colourways, and I will definitely be making more with it!
The pattern for this blouse is Simplicity 1422. When I got it, my mum was like ‘that’s a fat person pattern’ but actually (as ever :-P) I’ve proved her wrong, and I’ve actually worn it quite a lot. It’s been a godsend to have it during Me Made May (I think I’ve actually managed ‘me made’ every day this month – although sometimes simply because of my pyjamas!) because it’s easier to wear separates to the office some days that full blown Liberty-print 50s-style dresses. Anyway, you can check out my instagram for the full selfie nightmare (I just checked, and I never instagrammed the three occasions this month where I wore this top. Oopsie!).
My main regret is that I didn’t add some darts at the sides – it’s a bit gaping at the armholes. Live and learn.
But yes – it’s comfortable, it’s versatile and I really like it. The collar was really simple – the collar and the collar stand are one piece; which I think would have worked better without interfacing. It’s a bit pointy-foldy and the back of the neck with the interfacing. I’ve actually resolved never to use interfacing again after this project, and so far, I haven’t. I read on the brilliant series of Granville shirt tutorials on the Sewaholic blog that you can use lawn or muslin instead of crunchy interfacing; I’ve done this on subsequent collars and button plackets and it’s worked a treat.
Ahhh teapots 🙂 What better for the 150th anniversary of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland?
Woah – omigod – I just saw a fox cub in the garden while I was writing this. Super cute; but I’m suddenly worried that I haven’t seen my cat since yesterday morning…
p.s. Rune just walked in and I’m happy again!
