You may remember this pattern appearing recently as the source for the cover of my dress form, Genevieve.
Her cover fits her so well, that I forgot how many hand sewn extra darts were needed to achieve the close fit following the initial construction, and how much overlap there was at the back. I have a very optomistic memory when it comes to sewing.
I did use Genevieve to tweak the princess line seams at the front, but she has a bit of ease compared to me, and is completely unsquishy, so is not terribly useful for semi fitted designs that slip on over the head. In its original version, view D buttons up at the back, but I found the pattern fit me much better with a curvy back seam, so made a placket for the top few centimetres of the original button bands, and cut the rest off.
I could not do any post construction fitting, other than removing about 6cm from the centre back, as I used french seams for all the vertical seams, due to a sudden attack of technique acquisition determination. These were not too tricky over the curved seams, despite my trepidations, as I used a running stitch to ease the final seamline, and just ignored all the little pleats I was making with the first seam, which did not show at all once this seam was enclosed. I also hand stitched the hems again. The fabric was another small piece of Liberty lawn that has been lurking in my stash for a few years waiting for a remnant suitable pattern. There was about 80cm.
Once I tried on the blouse, I was strongly reminded that not only is the fabric rather old, but that I have owned this pattern for at least 10 years.
I really like this print, but it is a bit Mumsy combined with the non-current pattern. However, it looks much better tucked in, and will be beautifully cool to wear when it is too hot to wear a t-shirt.
Fortunately, the sleeves (with full biceps adjustment) are hanging-up-the-washing friendly. How Mumsy is that!
