Mystery Blouse
So I have a habit of buying bags of fabric from the thrift store when available and once I bought this bag and inside the bag, stuffed among the remnants, was a blouse. This blouse was missing sleeves and had some pintucks on the front of the bodice. It was in a cute flowery fabric and it even had the facings cut out for the neck. What it did not have was the pattern it was made from. So for a year or two, it sat on my sewing table, waiting to be finished. There was even some extra fabric left over, so I was determined to use that for some sort of sleeves. Yet there it sat...
A week or two ago I got into organizing my sewing room because I had 3 sewing machines in cabinets taking up a LOT of space and I cannot deal with clutter anymore, let alone not having any room to do anything. At the same time the husband has been working on our dining room which became the catch all for the house. Mainly because when we get back from the thrift store, that is where we deposit our games or stuff he bought to resell. There was also a large amount of empty boxes stacked up on one wall because he is against breaking down boxes just to have to retape them when he's ready to ship something out. I get that, but also damn that was a lot of room being taken up by boxes.
Anywho, we moved some stuff around the house and we now have 2 sewing machine cabinets in the bedroom and 2 in my sewing room. The cats like them and we had some room in our bedroom. So yeah, we have a problem. lol. I also received a vintage sewing machine from my aunt-in-law for christmas that is NOT in a cabinet, but one of the cabinets in my office has no machine in it, so we may be able to rig that machine to fit. More on that later.
Once we made some room, I was in a cleaning mood and kept on going. I was finishing projects left and right, making more room on my desk and fueling my sewjo. I had 2 skirts that I made before we moved and I took them apart to serge the insides and reinsert the zippers because honestly they looked like shit. I finally finished a pair of sleeping shorts that had been cut and pinned, but never sewn. I was waiting to change the thread color in my serger back to black for those. More on those shorts later, too.
This blouse was so cute and I really wanted to finish it because who was this woman and why was this never finished?! I felt a need to finish it, so I took Simplicity 2322 and cut out some sleeves. I had made Simplicity 2322 before and really liked it, but never went back to make another one. But I remembered that I liked the sleeves, so I knew which pattern to go to. But the sleeves needed something, so I sewed some elastic on the bottoms of the armholes to make them a little gathered looking instead of loose. The top itself is loose and I wanted more structure (?) to the sleeves. I really like how they turned out!
Then for the neckline I wasn't 100% happy, so I took a small wooden bead and ran some thread through it and attached it to the sides of the open neckline and I think it goes well with the whole hippie look.
Then I wanted to address the looseness of the whole thing, so I made a piece of tubing and sewed it on either side into the seams and made it smaller than the width of the back so it took it in a little. Kind of like those little clips people used to use on things that were a little too big. Remember those? Anywho, here's what it looks like in the back...
That is supposed to be a bow, but it really doesn't look much like a bow here. whomp whomp.
Look at these pintucks! Someone did some work on this. I couldn't not finish it! I'm really happy with this blouse. I don't know what pattern it came from or who started making it or why it was never finished, but she's done now! The husband kept laughing at me because I could not leave well enough alone with this blouse. He thought it looked fine with the sleeves as they were, but I had to do something different with them. He thought the neckline looked fine, but I kept thinking it was missing something. But its finally done!
A week or two ago I got into organizing my sewing room because I had 3 sewing machines in cabinets taking up a LOT of space and I cannot deal with clutter anymore, let alone not having any room to do anything. At the same time the husband has been working on our dining room which became the catch all for the house. Mainly because when we get back from the thrift store, that is where we deposit our games or stuff he bought to resell. There was also a large amount of empty boxes stacked up on one wall because he is against breaking down boxes just to have to retape them when he's ready to ship something out. I get that, but also damn that was a lot of room being taken up by boxes.
Anywho, we moved some stuff around the house and we now have 2 sewing machine cabinets in the bedroom and 2 in my sewing room. The cats like them and we had some room in our bedroom. So yeah, we have a problem. lol. I also received a vintage sewing machine from my aunt-in-law for christmas that is NOT in a cabinet, but one of the cabinets in my office has no machine in it, so we may be able to rig that machine to fit. More on that later.
Once we made some room, I was in a cleaning mood and kept on going. I was finishing projects left and right, making more room on my desk and fueling my sewjo. I had 2 skirts that I made before we moved and I took them apart to serge the insides and reinsert the zippers because honestly they looked like shit. I finally finished a pair of sleeping shorts that had been cut and pinned, but never sewn. I was waiting to change the thread color in my serger back to black for those. More on those shorts later, too.
This blouse was so cute and I really wanted to finish it because who was this woman and why was this never finished?! I felt a need to finish it, so I took Simplicity 2322 and cut out some sleeves. I had made Simplicity 2322 before and really liked it, but never went back to make another one. But I remembered that I liked the sleeves, so I knew which pattern to go to. But the sleeves needed something, so I sewed some elastic on the bottoms of the armholes to make them a little gathered looking instead of loose. The top itself is loose and I wanted more structure (?) to the sleeves. I really like how they turned out!
Then for the neckline I wasn't 100% happy, so I took a small wooden bead and ran some thread through it and attached it to the sides of the open neckline and I think it goes well with the whole hippie look.
Then I wanted to address the looseness of the whole thing, so I made a piece of tubing and sewed it on either side into the seams and made it smaller than the width of the back so it took it in a little. Kind of like those little clips people used to use on things that were a little too big. Remember those? Anywho, here's what it looks like in the back...
That is supposed to be a bow, but it really doesn't look much like a bow here. whomp whomp.
Look at these pintucks! Someone did some work on this. I couldn't not finish it! I'm really happy with this blouse. I don't know what pattern it came from or who started making it or why it was never finished, but she's done now! The husband kept laughing at me because I could not leave well enough alone with this blouse. He thought it looked fine with the sleeves as they were, but I had to do something different with them. He thought the neckline looked fine, but I kept thinking it was missing something. But its finally done!
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