Sick Saturday Sewing

Yesterday was day 4 of the flu, and I was still under orders not to leave the house.  I was bored out of my mind, tired of sleeping, tired of Netflix, and Mike was on his way up to Green Bay for the Packers game.  What to do?  How about sew two blouses!

This is my new favorite pattern:

The pattern envelope doesn't look like much, due to unfortunate fabric choices (flesh-colored charmeuse??), but the original pattern drawings are cute, as are the line drawings.

I only plan on making the blouse, but I bought the pattern on eBay for $4, so I think I am getting my money's worth. I don't care for the jacket or skirt, but maybe I will make the pants at some point.

Okay, reasons why this is my new favorite pattern:
-Takes about 3 hours start to finish
-Sleeves!
-The tucks at the waist are super flattering
-The gathering above the bust is adorable
-No zipper!
-Excuse to use a pretty vintage button
-Barely uses any fabric

I didn't bother with a muslin, and I cut a size 12.  I love this piece of fabric, but I got it on eBay for like $2 so it's really not the end of the world if I ruin it. In my delusional state, I managed to sew the yoke on backwards, which I didn't realized until after I trimmed and pressed the seam. And pulled out the gathering threads. So, I had to do all that again. Oh, and I learned two new skills with this blouse!! Bias binding, and turning a loop. Okay, why has no one ever told me how amazing bias binding is? I am never doing a facing again. It was so easy and used up like zero fabric and took waaaay less time than cutting a facing, interfacing said facing, sewing on the facing, trimming and clipping the seam, understitching, pressing, tacking down, etc. It took like 5 minutes to do the neckline. I was SO tempted just to "stitch in the ditch" but I decided not to be lazy and took the time to hand sew it. I loved the bias binding so much I did it on the sleeves too instead of hemming them. Okay, so here's blouse #1. Please ignore my fluface and yesterday's lopsided bun.

 
The back is pretty too! Check out the sweet button loop. I did the trick where you tie a piece of thread to one end to turn it inside out, and it worked like magic. I can't believe the thread didn't just rip out or break.

What's that? You want a closeup? Okay, if you insist.

I was still bored, so I made another. This time I used some yellow stretch crepe that I bought on eBay a million years ago. I never used it because it had a funny old smell, but it seems to have aired itself out. This time, I made it a little bit longer (the blue one, like everything I own, I wish was an inch longer), and I did the darts in the sleeves. Oh yeah! There are three darts on each sleeve. I didn't do them and instead just removed the ease from the sleeve cap on the blue blouse because there was no way in hell I was doing 6 tiny darts on chiffon. Eff that. This fabric was much more sturdy, so I went for it.

I am not sure this is my best color? Whatevs. I'll just make sure to wear my hair down and a colorful necklace close to my face. The picture of me wearing it turned out blurry, so here it is on the hanger.

It's super cute and fits nice, at least.

Sleeve closeup! I did bias bindings again.

Um, I made one more too. Shut up! You know I love to make multiples. The third one is almost done, I just need to hand sew the bias binding and hem it. This one is SLEEVELESS though so it's different, I promise.   If you have not previously considered making this pattern, I highly encourage you to. It's going to be a wardrobe staple, I'm sure of it.