Remember my black blouse from earlier this month? Well, I’ve now finished it, I’m pleased to say. The blouse is a simplified version of the Lucinda Shirt I made back in July. This time I added short sleeves and a much less elaborate collar.
I self-drafted a pattern for the collar to fit the top of my blouse. I decided to make it form a triangular notch where the two sides of the collar meet at the centre-front. I had noticed this on a few ready-to-wear blouses and liked this idea. I had a vintage pattern from the 1970s, that I had thought I’d use as a pattern, but with the adjustments I made, I can’t really say that I used the pattern as a template. In particular the collar was just a bit to large and 1970s-ish, so I made mine quite a bit narrower.
However, I did use the instructions to help me attach the collar to the blouse. Getting the front to form that triangular notch at the front required a lots of adjustment, no end of seam trimming and a little origami. (I’m not sure that I can use the word origami, as it means paper-folding, but it was fiddly and required lots of folding and pressing to get it right!)
All in all, I’m quite pleased with the look. It’s been a little cold outdoors to wear it short-sleeved, so I’ve gone for wearing it over a long-sleeved t-shirt. I just about managed to brave late October without a coat to pose for these pictures, but I don’t think it shows the blouse off to best effect; it is looking a little crumpled.
The photos were taken at Ashton Court Estate, a country park near Bristol.
We spent a fair while enjoying watching the deer in the deer park. The stags were being quite noisy asserting their authority. The does were just ignoring them!
Steely Seamstress 
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