Love Notions Rhapsody Blouse

The Love Notions Rhapsody Blouse is a very popular pattern, and I picked it up recently on their Friday $5 special offer.

I printed out the size XL which matched my bust/high bust measurement. I used the layers feature to turn off all the other sizes, also turned off Letter and had the A4 page marking. When printing in A4 its not truly trimless, but not a lot needs removing on each page.

I made the view with 3/4 sleeves with cuff and kept the 'strings' on the neckline.

I used a very fine cotton lawn which the sewing machine didn't want to sew. I need to get some sharp/Microtex needles, but until then I used tissue paper and spray starch to tame it which improved thing a lot.

I struggled making the bias tape, but this was before I'd got going with the spray starch so I'll try to remember that for next time.

The instructions in the pattern are good and very thorough though I also watched videos on You Tube.

Other than working with the fabric, my only other issue was that the cuff didn't fit onto the sleeve as per the diagram. I thought that this was because the pattern pieces for XL didn't match up, however it turns out I was confusing the 3/4 length Bishop Sleeve with the 3/4 length sleeve, so my error. (The cuff prints out with the Front body piece, so is a bonus you don't need for the bishop sleeve).

As I'd already cut the cuffs out, I altered construction, ran a basting thread around the bottom of the sleeve and eased it to fit the cuff which I folded over and topstitched rather than folding up.

I have a couple of queries on the style. 

First of all I'm not a strings person and I don't know what to do with them when I wear this blouse - loose knot, flying free, twee bow? - so I think for future versions I'd skip that and have the view with the neat neck.

The other style query is that the shoulders are quite set in (more apparent on some of the tester blouses than others) and I'm not sure if this works with my shoulders, the shoulders feel too narrow and my shoulder is sitting in the top of the sleeve instead. 

What do you think?

Updated to add, I didn't like the way the sleeves were hanging so I unpicked them, recut them with a really tall sleeve cap and reinserted them.

I've not re done the overlocking yet....

Woven Tee from Vogue 9246

 

After making the long sleeved blouse from two pieces of fabric both about 1.15cm, I had largish scraps leftover, one full width of the fabric and about 50cm long, and another full width of fabric 40cm long, as well as a small rectangular scrap.

I wanted to use the scraps to make another garment and after a look through my pattern stash Vogue V9246 View C, a woven blouse looked possible.

I used size L flared out a bit at the hipline. I was able to cut the front yoke and body on the fold as per the pattern, though by shortening the sleeves by an inch.

I raised the back neckline by about half an inch and narrowed the front neckline slightly.

To cut the back out I had to include a centre back seam in both the yoke and body, and move the yoke seam down a bit.

I also had some curved scraps left which I was able to use to extend the sleeve length a little bit.

I made 1/2" wide self fabric bias binding and used this to do a bias facing to the neckline.

So a nice cool top out of the scraps.

Vogue 9246 View C woven tee

Long sleeved floral blouse

 

I had two pieces of this cotton lawn so was able to cut the long sleeved shirt with cuffs.

I used the same pattern as with the previous shirt, but just curved the back hem down a little, for a slight high-low hem look. I've used burgundy buttons, stitched on with burgundy thread which gives a lovely subtle detail. 

Summer Floral Blouse

 

Cotton lawn blouse with 3/4 sleeves and button front.

Fabric : Remnant purchased from fabric shop in Madeira on holiday in Feb 2020, when we managed a holiday before lockdown.

1.2 metres of 140cm wide with a directional print, so could only squeeze out 3/4 length sleeves with hem bands and couldn't attempt pattern matching. I only have a piece large enough for a pocket left over.

The fabric was gorgeous to sew with, and should be very cool to wear.

Pattern used: Shirt dress pattern from March 2020 Prima magazine, shortened to be a shirt.