BWOF 07-2008-103

I asked my mother to look at the July BWOF, as she had been hinting that she would like some work-worthy travel garments for a "medical mission" trip she is taking to India. The long sleeve Jalie t shirts I made her to take to France last year were a great success, but these garments for India need to be not only quick drying, no-iron-required garments that do not look too "tourist" or "backpacker" for my adventurous, widely traveled, mother, but also suitably modest and professional. She thought that #103 would be suitable, so I tried very hard to make this blouse/jacket for her birthday, last Monday. I had the perfect fabric, that I had purchased with my mother in mind, a baby blue rayon and cotton blend, with a seersucker sort of crinkle. It is hard to photograph, as there is a slightly shiny stripe.

I nearly managed it. I had set aside all of Sunday for this 2 and 1/2 dot pattern, and had no trouble at all until I hit the zipper.

 

It looks pretty good hanging here IMO, but this is after reworking. :(. I particularly like the side pieces that allowed me to play with the stripes in the fabric.

 

The BWOF instructions for the zipper were a little hard for me to understand. This is what I did in response to the first instruction "Open zip. Pin halves of zip face up on front edge of front facings(right side of fabric)from neck edfe so that teeth of zip oint toward the side and edge of zip tape exactly meets marked seam line. Stitch along centre of each zip tape" See any problems?

 

Next instruction " Lay teeth forward and press seam allowances on-to facing. Press edges of facing below zip to inside. Lay halves of zip with facings right sides together with fronts so that teeth neet with seam line on front edges. ....Lay allowances at front edges outward and pin in place over facings"

 

I thought I was going pretty well, but I somehow missed that the zip was in backwards
until after the next two steps, which naturally included not only 2 stitching rows, but topstitching!!!! I was sewing late at night again, when will I learn?
I took the jacket to Noosa, where I was meeting Mum for lunch, tried it on her - with birthday wishes, then snatched it back so that I could fix it. 5 hours of unpicking, basting and hand sewing later, it looks respectable.