Flowery Blue and White Blouse/McCalls 6604 Review
I am not a giant fan of Walmart. Unfortunately, being in the middle of nowhere, we have to go to Walmart occasionally. I almost always peruse their sewing/crafts section just because there is no where else I can buy sewing/craft supplies besides the thrift stores. On this particular occasion I actually looked at the fabric for some reason. They had a big endcap of clearance fabrics and I decided to look through them to see if there was a cheap knit since I was on a roll with the panty making. They did not, but what they did have was this beauty:
WOULD YOU BELIEVE THIS WAS $.50 A YARD?!?! The thrift store is a quarter a yard, so seeing this was pretty awesome! And its sooooo pretty. However, there is never anyone at our fabric section to cut fabric for you, so I looked for any nearby employee so they could fetch someone. Aaaand I found no one. Well, no one in the next few aisles. So we decided to go do our actual grocery shopping and I would swing back by and see if anyone was there. There was a gentleman cutting some fabric for a lady when I went back, so I had him measure out the fabric because it said 10 yards and I was pretty prepared to buy all 10 yards. haha. Anywho, it was only 5 yards, so I had him make me a price sticker and I giddily went back to find the husband.
Flash forward a week and I was itching to make a new blouse to go with the new jeans I was in the middle of making. What's one project when you can have 2 running at the same time, amiright? Anywho, I really wanted something flowy with some bishop sleeves so I looked through my patterns and came up with these two:
I didn't want to do a button up (down?) for some reason, so I chose McCalls 6604 view D. I figured I could just omit the cuff and add some elastic and be done with it. I also was kind of feeling hippy, so I decided to make the neckline elastic, too, instead of the pleats and binding that they had going on. It was very easy to construct, consisting of only 3 pattern pieces since I took out the cuffs. This was also meant for a knit, so instead of cutting the back and front on the fold, I cut the back in 2 pieces and added a 7" zipper. I made sure to serge the ends of the zipper area to make a nice looking finished edge and I also stabilized the zipper area because this fabric is so light and airy, so any extra stability is essential to make sure the zipper wouldn't have that wavy look.
For the sleeves I kind of went in a different direction. And because of this I might make a second blouse with the bishop sleeves on it. But when I pinned on a sleeve to see how it looked, I really liked the un-gathered sleeve look. It was a bell sleeve, but not very extreme. So I hand gathered one sleeve and left the other as a bell and tried the blouse on. I LOVED THEM BOTH. ARGHHHHHHHH. haha. So I decided on making them into a convertible sleeve, like where you could have them as a bell or a bishop by adjusting these little toggles, like on drawstring bags and some clothes. I did not have any of the toggle thingies, so on our next trip to Wally World (today), I checked their sewing section aaaaand nothing. I thought it was a shot in the dark, but I wanted to look. So when we got home, the husband had some friends over so I was sewing on my jeans and this blouse for a few hours and decided to just finish the ends of the sleeves as bell just to get it done. I also decided to make a second one because this one is a little shorter than I typically like my tops, so I figure I will make the second one longer with bishop or convertible sleeves. For this one, it will be perfect for any of my high-waisted skirts!
For the neckline, I serged the edge and turned it to the inside and sewed it down. Then I used my loop turner to feed some really thin elastic through until I hit the other side. I then secured both ends with a safety pin and tried it on to see how it looked. I ended up loosening it a little to make it a little lower and I then sewed the ends closed, trapping the elastic inside.
And here she is!
I am really happy with this fabric and wish I had a lot more, but this top didn't take much so I have plenty left. I had thought about making a dress, but its so thin and I would have to line it and right now I am not feeling that, but I am really happy with this blouse!! I had made view C before with a stiff cotton and was not a fan, but that was totally my bad for using a crappy fabric. I would like to try this in a knit as its supposed to be, but with the right woven fabric, it works pretty good. I have some of this fabric left, so I might try that next since this was such a quick make.
WOULD YOU BELIEVE THIS WAS $.50 A YARD?!?! The thrift store is a quarter a yard, so seeing this was pretty awesome! And its sooooo pretty. However, there is never anyone at our fabric section to cut fabric for you, so I looked for any nearby employee so they could fetch someone. Aaaand I found no one. Well, no one in the next few aisles. So we decided to go do our actual grocery shopping and I would swing back by and see if anyone was there. There was a gentleman cutting some fabric for a lady when I went back, so I had him measure out the fabric because it said 10 yards and I was pretty prepared to buy all 10 yards. haha. Anywho, it was only 5 yards, so I had him make me a price sticker and I giddily went back to find the husband.
Flash forward a week and I was itching to make a new blouse to go with the new jeans I was in the middle of making. What's one project when you can have 2 running at the same time, amiright? Anywho, I really wanted something flowy with some bishop sleeves so I looked through my patterns and came up with these two:
I didn't want to do a button up (down?) for some reason, so I chose McCalls 6604 view D. I figured I could just omit the cuff and add some elastic and be done with it. I also was kind of feeling hippy, so I decided to make the neckline elastic, too, instead of the pleats and binding that they had going on. It was very easy to construct, consisting of only 3 pattern pieces since I took out the cuffs. This was also meant for a knit, so instead of cutting the back and front on the fold, I cut the back in 2 pieces and added a 7" zipper. I made sure to serge the ends of the zipper area to make a nice looking finished edge and I also stabilized the zipper area because this fabric is so light and airy, so any extra stability is essential to make sure the zipper wouldn't have that wavy look.
For the sleeves I kind of went in a different direction. And because of this I might make a second blouse with the bishop sleeves on it. But when I pinned on a sleeve to see how it looked, I really liked the un-gathered sleeve look. It was a bell sleeve, but not very extreme. So I hand gathered one sleeve and left the other as a bell and tried the blouse on. I LOVED THEM BOTH. ARGHHHHHHHH. haha. So I decided on making them into a convertible sleeve, like where you could have them as a bell or a bishop by adjusting these little toggles, like on drawstring bags and some clothes. I did not have any of the toggle thingies, so on our next trip to Wally World (today), I checked their sewing section aaaaand nothing. I thought it was a shot in the dark, but I wanted to look. So when we got home, the husband had some friends over so I was sewing on my jeans and this blouse for a few hours and decided to just finish the ends of the sleeves as bell just to get it done. I also decided to make a second one because this one is a little shorter than I typically like my tops, so I figure I will make the second one longer with bishop or convertible sleeves. For this one, it will be perfect for any of my high-waisted skirts!
For the neckline, I serged the edge and turned it to the inside and sewed it down. Then I used my loop turner to feed some really thin elastic through until I hit the other side. I then secured both ends with a safety pin and tried it on to see how it looked. I ended up loosening it a little to make it a little lower and I then sewed the ends closed, trapping the elastic inside.
And here she is!
I am really happy with this fabric and wish I had a lot more, but this top didn't take much so I have plenty left. I had thought about making a dress, but its so thin and I would have to line it and right now I am not feeling that, but I am really happy with this blouse!! I had made view C before with a stiff cotton and was not a fan, but that was totally my bad for using a crappy fabric. I would like to try this in a knit as its supposed to be, but with the right woven fabric, it works pretty good. I have some of this fabric left, so I might try that next since this was such a quick make.
Love this!!!
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