I love as fast turn around on a sewing project, and I love it when a more experimental idea works out well. You might have seen I had this little blouse all set to sew in an earlier post, here’s the pattern envelope and fabric..
I used a lemon yellow crepe from my Nana Joy, which is a delight to behold and work with – except that it is a touch on the sheer side. From another dress project, I discovered that this dress has possibly my all time favourite neckline, and after going through my too-small-for-a-dress fabric stash, I thought I’d have a go at making a blouse from the bodice. Keen to have a the top reach a little past my waistline, I grabbed this other favourite dress pattern, which has a dropped waist – just my size too.
If you’re new to combining different patterns here’s what I did…
First, I placed the two front bodice pieces together, checking dart placement, arm hole position, and anything else structural that may make them incompatible. They were essentially the same size with the differing neck line and obviously length as the main variation.
With the shoulder seams together I placed them on my fabric in this case, both front and backs went on the fold, played around until I was happy that they lined up and that I have enough room for the extra length. The Academy pattern has a back closure, while the Weigel’s has a side zipper closure, so I made allowance for this too. The adjustment I was making did not affect any facings, so it was fairly straight forward, I removed the Academy bodice piece, weighted the pattern and cut the upper bodice to where the two bodice piece meet (I also make a hollow bust adjustment at this point). Then, replaced the second longer bodice panel slipped the Weigel’s bodice out and finished cutting out. I used the same process for the back bodice panel.
Easy really. I only have a couple of progress photos… I get a bit carried away when I’m inserting sleeves, do you? They have to be perfect. Oh and I went with the side zipper, I used and invisible zip from Nana Shirley’s stash.
I left the front and back vertical darts open, I haven’t quite figured out what I’ll do with them yet, might just ease them down, at the moment the blouse tucks in fine, left out, it looks ok, somewhat like a peplum.
Front view… see, I haven’t quite resolved the front darts, which look a little like pleats from here.
Back…
Overall, I’m very happy with this, I’ll probably wear it tucked in, and yes, it does need a better press!
I’m not sure how to avoid the neckline facing showing through, other than trimming it back, which I don’t really want to do, I used white iron on facing, I think perhaps nude/beige may have been a better option. Any tips?
mermaids purse 