Thursday, April 19, 2012

Finished: B5721

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I love camp shirts for warm weather.  I haven't seen anything that looked like a camp shirt from Burda, my first choice in patterns, since April 2006.  I'm trying to move away from my "All Burda – All the Time" stance and sew other pattern companies, including Big 4.  Butterick used to be my favorite pattern company and I was happy to find B5721 for a warm weather blouse.  (The May 2012 Issue of Burda Style has a short sleeved button-up blouse 05-2012-135  but the issue arrived after I'd already started this blouse.)

I bought the fabric, a cotton-poly blend, to coordinate with pants fabric I had, but decided to go another way for that blouse.  That made this fabric perfect for experimenting with a non-Burda pattern.  Butterick didn't let me down.  I like the way this blouse turned out.

There was a little too much sleeve ease.  In addition to my usual finger easing,  (or "ease plus")  I used a method I saw demonstrated by Louise Cutting.  Cutting's method takes advantage of turn of cloth to ease in the extra fullness.  This method is done while pinning the sleeve to the armscye and didn't take any extra time and very little extra effort.  I don't know if piggy-backing two techniques is recommended, but it worked in this case.

Since this was a test garment, I didn't agonize over selecting buttons.  I dumped my buttons out of the jar and onto the fabric and discovered antiqued metallic buttons that looked good. They weren't even green! OMG!

This may be the first pattern from the women's size range I've sewn.  Usually I choose patterns from the misses size range.  Who comes up with theses labels anyway?  Somehow, I feel older and more matronly sewing women's than I did sewing misses.  While this crushed my body image and dented my self esteem, I have to admit, the blouse fits.  Just one more way the universe has of telling me I'm getting older.
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4 comments:

  1. MelodyeApril 19, 2012 at 7:30 PM

    Bt it beats the alternative! The blouse looks good and fits well. In the end that's all that matters!

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  2. Nancy KApril 19, 2012 at 9:16 PM

    The blouse fits you really well. The slight pulling I often see in your upper chest in Burda is not present here. A definite keeper.

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  3. LauraMApril 20, 2012 at 7:42 AM

    The blouse looks nice on you! I have this pattern, just need to get around to it as I've been sewing for my twin 18 mth grandsons. I feel you on the feeling older, I turn 50 this summer, I also quit smoking a couple of years ago and have put on plenty of weight. I'm not sure if it the quit smoking or other changes of aging, but the weight seem to magnetize to me, so now I too am cutting out the women's size opposed to the misses. I am having a hard time deciding what would look good on my 50ish fluffy body too ... sometimes I feel in crisis mode. Love to see you post!

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  4. SilknmoreApril 22, 2012 at 11:02 PM

    Not only does the blouse fit well but it also has a lovely and flattering curve just below the bustline. Great job.

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