Burda Style 05-2011-114 bishop blouse makeover

I am so behind with writing about my sewing. Here is the second of 3 tops I made to take camping, back in December,

Mine is the one on the left. It was made due to pure envy at the versatility, quick drying nature, reported coolness in wearing and glamper appearance of the RTW top on the right, which belongs to my older daughter, and is a well travelled top.



My version started with the pattern Burda Style 05-2011-114,

 which is a mini dress that falls off the shoulder at the beach,

 so naturally required some revision before making a debut as a sun protective blouse to be worn whilst hiking by a mother-of-teenagers.

The fabrics are a generous left over from a favourite summer dress ( cream pink/red print lawn bought in London, 2010), and a less generous left over from another favourite summer dress ( red patterned silk). I seem to sew in a co-ordinating palette even when I am making stand alone garments.

In cutting out, I raised the neckline by about 5cm, and lengthened the upper section of the dress as much as my fabric would allow - which was about 10cm less than I would have liked, at the body, and forced inspired me to use 5/8 long sleeves rather than full length.



The RTW inspiration has a double gathered neckline, through 2 externally applied casings, one with elastic, and  one with elastic at the back, drawstring at the front. This makes the neckline of the blouse highly adjustable, and more flattering than the average bishop style blouse.
Being rather cocky, I thought this garment would be very quick to sew - raglan sleeves, no fitting, etc, etc, but the casing application (bias cut strips of silk) turned out to be very tricky. The original blouse applied the casing over a partially gathered neckline. Copying this took about 20 minutes. Then this casing was used to gather the neckline further, and the second casing was applied over the even more gathered neckline. Keeping the gathering well distributed whilst also keeping the casing equidistant from the first application required serious pinning and about an hour of sewing (there may have been some unpicking at this stage). This slow sewing was compounded by my original application of a pale pink shirting fabric as casing number 1. This looked insipid, so I replaced it with the deep red.

The waist gathering casing was applied with self fabric bias cord just above the natural waist, after I worked out that the blouse tucked into my A line hiking skirt had a rapid untucking action, and that no waistline is not a good look for me in a voluminous top. I was rather pleased with the on trend peplum look this gave the blouse.

I wore this walking several times during our trip to Tasmania, and it was cool, sun protective, and washed and dried quickly, but I am not 100% happy with it. Maybe it is too fussy for camping and hiking? I do like having more feminine clothes for outdoor activities than are available in RTW, but possibly this blouse takes  this tendency too far.



I think it would look better with a straight skirt, and even I have to admit that  a straight skirt is not a particularly practical garment for hiking.