Finished project: scalloped collar Pendrell blouse

This weekend I finished up a sewing project, and I'm so excited to reveal it!

I started my scalloped collar Pendrell blouse back in early July and got it about 80% complete, then life got in the way and I didn't pick it back up until this weekend when I finished it up lickety split. I was tired of it taunting me from my dress form every time I walked past it!

I'm kind of over the moon about this blouse!

First of all, I want to say how nice the Pendrell blouse pattern was to work with. This was my first time using a Sewaholic pattern and I loved it. Tasia's instructions and diagrams are very clear and easy to follow (okay, and I totally love how it ends with a big "THE END!"). The fit was fantastic, too, and ran true to size. I didn't do a muslin and the entire time wondered how I was really going to get it over my head with no closure without it being a super baggy fit, but it was perfect. The only change I made (other than the collar, of course), was taking several inches off the length of the bodice pieces.

I could totally see making different collared versions of this pattern now!

I used Casey's 30s scalloped collar tutorial (part 1, part 2) for the collar. This was so much fun and a good challenge for me. Ever since I saw her post I knew I wanted to make my own version because I just absolutely fell in love with the collar. I'd been daydreaming about making my own version for months. The tutorial was very detailed and I was able to follow along with each step with no prior drafting experience. And I'm ecstatic with the result!

Don't get me wrong, there are a few minor quibbles I have with it, but it's all due to my own drafting, sewing skills and fabric choice. I realized that I must have been a bit lax in the placement of my scallops on my template as the two that sit on the back of each shoulder are slightly closer to the white inner collar than all the others. Overall the entire collar was the slightest bit uneven and even more slightly too long, but I was able to even things out when sewing it all together. And while you can't tell in these photos, the fabric is a bit darker and due to the busy print the scallops kind of fade away into the background when indoors. I anticipated this before attaching the under piece of the scalloped border, so I re-cut it out of the white fabric to give it a tad more 'pop'.

This project had two firsts for me: first time drafting my own collar, and first time making French seams. The navy floral is cotton lawn (the white is a cotton/poly shirting) and so I knew French seams were probably the way to go, since it was a tad on the sheer side. I loved the result.



I was happy with how my collar came together. I pretty much followed Casey's instructions exactly. The only real issue I had in the construction process was pressing the scallops, which I knew would be hard. My first try at it they looked terrible, so I cut out a little cardboard template that was a teensy bit larger than the scallop, inserted it into the scallop, pressed with the template in it, then carefully removed the template and pressed the daylights out of it. While some are still not perfect (this fabric didn't like to hold creases), it was a big improvement.

Below you can see the difference between a scallop on the left, pressed normally, and a scallop on the right, pressed with my handy dandy template. It made such a difference that I slipped the template into my pattern envelope!

Oh yeah, and you can see I got a haircut Saturday! I did end up going a few inches shorter. I'm really liking the ease of this length, and I might even go for another inch or two off next time so I can do a pageboy sometimes. It's one of my favorite vintage hairstyles. (By the way I've been meaning to do a bit of a hair tutorial for awhile, I need to get my butt in gear!)

Anyway, I'm so pleased with this blouse! It's really comfortable and lawn was a great fabric for it, and I can't say enough good things about this collar. I'd like to sew a pair of light trousers to wear with it, since jeans were the only thing I had in my closet that it worked with. I definitely will make a couple more of these blouses as it's the perfect summery top. But I'll probably wait until next year since I'm thinking more about fall sewing at this point!

I would highly recommend both Casey's 30s scalloped collar tutorial and the Sewaholic Pendrell blouse pattern. Both are big winners in my book!