Unselfish sewing

Momma knitwit liked my Mimi blouses, in fact she liked them so much that she asked me to make one for her to wear to a vintage festival (the goodwood revival) they go to every year. 

Anyway we started by looking at fabric and she finally settled on a red gingham check in cotton. When I went to abakhans to buy it, it looked a bit more sheer than I was expecting, so I took the executive decision to buy a similar check in the same colour but this is a polycotton blend! 

It doesn't look quite right on my mannequin (because of the size) I'm hoping the fit on my mum will be good though. It does need a good press ,But my iron is currently soaking following an incident with the interfacing! 

It's a tilly and the buttons, Mimi blouse,  and I cut a straight size 8, I could have graded down at the waist, but it's going to be worn with high waisted trousers so I didn't see the point. Plus because momma has some fairly hefty bosoms I want to make sure there was some wiggle room.... So to speak! 

Construction wise it's the same as the others I made, but I did add a couple of inches to the bottom of the blouse pattern pieces because both me and my mum are both quite long waisted. I also ignored the buttonholes on the pattern and placed my own closer together. As I said before momma is rather bosomy so I wanted to minimise gaping as much as I could. These buttons are roughly one short side of a credit card apart. Yes I used a credit card to measure button holes! It worked didn't it? And actually it wasn't a credit card, it was a build a bear factory card! STOP JUDGING ME! I like teddies okay! The buttons are from my stash, I have no idea if they are vintage but I think they are pretty cute! 

Sleeve wise I decided to omit the pleated sleeve and just gather the bottom. I love the pleated sleeve on the original blouse, but it's a pain in the bum bum to iron and me and my mum are both pretty low maintenance ironers! I also left the sleeve facing down and top stitched it in place. The instructions call for you to turn it under so everything's neat but I like it down!

My pattern matching is a bit hit and miss, but I think I get away with it because it's such a busy print! I was really tempted to cut the yoke on the bias, but I thought it might be a bit risky! Next time eh? 

I used French seams in the yoke and bodice seams, and regular seams with a finishing stitch on the sleeves. 

All in all I'm very pleased with this make! I love the fabric and now I just hope it fits! Prepare yourself for pictures of momma modelling it herself! 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx

P.s would it be really sad if I made one of my own? 

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