Finished project: sleeveless blouse for VLV

First and foremost, I want to thank you all so very much for your congratulations and kind comments on my last post. It's been overwhelmingly wonderful reading all your supportive comments. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

♥ ♥ ♥

I recently bought a pair of 50s capris from Bombshell Shocked. They're plaid, they're tight, they're fantastic. They're not my usual style, but they fit great and screamed "I need to be part of a casual outfit for Viva Las Vegas!" (Okay, maybe they didn't really scream at me. But they almost did.)

The main problem was that I wasn't really sure if I had a blouse that I could wear with them. I love my prints, and that constitutes the majority of my tops. I went through everything I owned and came up empty handed. I scoured eBay and Etsy and came up empty handed there, too. Drat.

Even though I steadfastly had refused to add any other crafty projects to my list before VLV, I had already planned one new thing and surely I wasn't going to take on a blouse now, too. But those capris... they were so cute! They needed a top!

I took a peek just in case. And it turned out I had the perfect pattern and the perfect matching red fabric (no small feat when you're matching a modern cotton/poly solid to a vintage cotton print). So this is how I spent the last few evenings.

It's a sleeveless blouse from Butterick 8946. I'm guessing by the hair and a consultation with my mom that the pattern is from the late 50s or early 60s. Don't you love that the previous owner, Mrs. Risberg, wrote her name on the pattern? Why do you think she did that?

I made view C, the sleeveless version with faux pocket flaps. I made a muslin Sunday afternoon and went full steam ahead, not making a single change to the pattern. Amazingly, with the exception of some armhole facings that refused to cooperate on the inside, it went together like a dream.

(Sorry the photos are a bit inconsistent, this red is so hard to capture in a photograph and I just don't have the time to take nicer photos outside right now!)

The fabric was a cotton/poly blend that I picked up from Fabric.com, which I was a bit disappointed with when it arrived. It definitely feels and looks a bit more like the 'poly' part than the 'cotton' part. It also didn't press very well and tended to show marks at the seams. I found myself needing to use something to put between the seam and the rest of the fabric when I pressed, which turned out to be two food delivery menus that were the nearest pieces of paper to my ironing board.

In spite of the pressing problems, I was able to get nice clean lines around the neckline and armholes. Fortunately for me Casey recently posted about understitching, which reminded me about this technique just when I needed to use it!

 (Don't mind the crappy-looking ponytail. I discovered with my new haircut that I do not have the option of using Hot Sticks on lazy days. Lesson learned.)

The buttons are interesting vintage buttons I had a bunch of, and I think they look perfect on this blouse. Like little sunbursts! Even better, I still have several left for future use.

I love how this blouse came out! I blind stitch hemmed it by hand, understitched the neck and armhole facings and did the buttonholes on my machine. 

 (That's me knitting my black blouse for VLV. Wearing the project that temporarily put it on hold. Ha!)

It also fits well on my new dressform! Her name is Notasha. Not-Tasha... get it? It was a birthday present from my mom and step-dad, and she arrived last night. Currently she's living next to our hutch.

Yes, I guess that's a little weird having a dress form next to our hutch. On the other side is Mel's art studio area. We have a small condo so we do what we can to double up on space. :)

Overall I'm really pleased with this blouse. The only change I made was to use 5 buttons instead of 4. And the only change I'd make in the future would be to lower the bust darts, which seemed fine on the muslin but on the final blouse are a bit high. But really, that's my only complaint.

I am a huge fan of sleeveless shirts in the summer when it's super muggy here and I don't want a lot of extra fabric sticking to me, so I could easily see myself making several variations of this top. A fun novelty print, or a solid with printed pocket flaps, maybe contrasting bias tape around the armholes instead of the facings... lots of possibilities. What do you think?

Expect to see some photos of this with my plaid capris at VLV!

This weekend we're off to Wisconsin with our friends for a getaway. We'll be enjoying the kitschy wonderland that is House on the Rock, drinking New Glarus brews and hopefully we'll fit a cake in there somewhere since my birthday is Sunday. I hope you all have a fabulous weekend, and once again thank you for all the congrats on our engagement!! ♥