Sneak Peek: Blouse BWOF 08-2009-118

Here's a sneak peak of my latest project.
It's blouse 118 from BWOF August 2009. Version 117, longer and sleeveless, has been quite popular around the blogosphere, and I was definitely considering it. I however decided to do the version with sleeves, as this is meant to be a fall/winter garment.

The suggested fabric is silk, which allows for a light, flowy ruffle. I didn't find any silk that I liked, and instead I bought a woven cotton with a bit of stretch. I liked the color and the little bit of shine to it (the pictures really don't do it justice). The fabric is stiffer though, which at first made the ruffle lay kind of flat, and not flow down as nicely as I wished. In fact, it looked a lot like a napkin stuck in the collar (yuk !).... I considered changing the shape of the ruffle, but it seemed like a lot of potential trial and error, so I ended up adding an extra pleat at the top to give it more shape, and I think it worked well.

The other tricky part with the ruffle was the hem. I had to iron a thin double hem before I stitched it in place with a zig-zag stitch. In the end I'm happy with how it turned out.
The bodice and sleeves were a no-brainer, I did french seams on the shoulder seams, and also on the sleeves and side seams which I did in one step.

I finished the other seams with brown satin double folded bias tape. I really like the result on the inside.

The only other tricky part was the button tab at the bottom hem, mostly because the instructions were impossible to understand. It took me a few readings and leaving the project away for a while before I figured out how to do it. It's also a good thing I had experience making a button-down shirt as it helped me figure it out.
At first I thought I made mistake in that I finished the upper tab right at the middle seam. It probably should overlap a bit on the other side, so that the buttonhole be centered and not to the side of the center seam. Looking at the drawing though, it seems that this is way it's meant to be...Oh well, I think I can live with it.

The last thing I need to do now is add the button. I have two options, one of which might not require an actual buttonhole so I might cheat it that way.

The first one is metal ( and not as shiny as the picture shows it). I like that it more or less matches the closure at the top, which I was inspired to add after seeing this version

The other one is a perfect match the the fabric color, so it blends a bit more.

Both of them come from Button Button, a fantastic store in Vancouver that I discovered through Tasia's post. So I have yet to make a design decision on that. Anybody out there care to give their opinion ?