day two of baby free sewing time

Tuesday 19 January 2010
I was in my sewing room at 8am this morning, shortly after Anna left for childcare (I let my husband do the drop off that so he gets the look of abandonment, not me!) Things were whirring along nicely until I tried to be fancy and use my overlocker for a rolled hem for the first time in the 6+ years I've owned it. For months now I've needed to get it serviced because the tension is all over the place and the right needle thread keeps breaking, but because I couldn't bear to be without it I reverted to three thread overlocking which worked ok. Until now. I guess it's time to finally take it to a repair place, and use the time without it for cutting out future projects, or sewing up things that don't need overlocking, like those pesky curtains for our living room that are still waiting to be finished. Or even just cleaning up my sewing room, now there's a novel though.

Anyway here's the blouse I finished up last night. It only took three hours of baby free time during the day to sew up from cutting out to 99% finished, and I finished sewing the buttons on last night after the little rascal went to bed. I call this my sedate librarian look:

Hmmm, looks like I need to stop standing with my hands on my hips, because the narrow shoulder and set in sleeves of this top get those awful wrinkles when I do that. Maybe I'm going to improve my demeanour through my wardrobe!

I used Simplicity 4676, a vintage pattern picked up in an op shop which I nearly didn't buy because the envelope is pretty beaten up and I wasn't sure if all the pieces would be in it. But I can't resist a vintage pattern no matter what, so I'm pretty glad I did buy it because I really like this blouse. I'd guess this is an early 1960s pattern, going by the pre-decimal currency price on the envelope.

It was so easy to make, and the fit is superb for a vintage pattern, normally I find them to have loads of ease and they are often too loose and baggy. It fits pretty well at the back too even though I didn't make any allowance for my swayback because I knew I'd be tucking this shirt in for work wear:

I'm not too sure I like the bow look, maybe I need to practise tying better bows:

But I do like it worn with the ties loose and knotted at the neck line instead. I just need to get my husband to show me how to do fancy tie knots like a windsor or half windsor or whatever they are called:


I've made it from a cotton shirting in a fine dark red pinstripe on a crisp white bought from Spotlight for the insane price of $2m. I managed to find some dark red buttons in the stash that go nicely with the fabric, don't you love it when that happens?

Next planned is a fairly simple top in a chiffon, so maybe I'll do french seams so I can get on with sewing even without my overlocker. No sense wasting another baby free day tomorrow is there?

Happily I can say that whilst Anna did have some tears again today, she ate all her meals, had two sleeps (a miracle in itself really) and wasn't as bad as yesterday apparently. And me? No guilt whatsoever today!

20 comments:

  1. Super cute blouse! Great work!

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  2. You look very work ready now! Nice. It looks very smart...and $2 a metre!

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  3. Lovely blouse. You look perfect in it.
    Anna must have understood that she is going home to you and her father at night, so now she is going to settle in quickly.

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  4. That's a very pretty blouse, and perfect for the office. It would be terrific under a suit jacket also. Nice job!

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  5. love the top! you look great!

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  6. I LOVE that blouse!!! It is so ladylike.

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  7. OMG! I have that vintage pattern!!! I bought it to make the sleeveless bow tie shirt to go under suit jackets. I'm gonna have to put that pattern in the sewing rotation because your blouse is beautiful!

    ...and I'm loving the heels!!!

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  8. Great top! I love both of the tie looks! I didn't think about making those blouses into "men's ties"... what a great idea!

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  9. You look awesome. Very smart.

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  10. http://DougJean.blogspot.com20 January 2010 at 06:42

    So, are there other children at the day care? Or is it at someone you knows home? Cause if there are other kids, she will figure it out soon enough that she can have fun with them!
    The top is cute... yep, I would advise DH showing you some other ways to tie the ties also... nothing wrong with your bow... just variety is the "spice" of life! Enjoy mom!

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  11. I really like this look on you. The great shoes stop you from looking librarian. I just love the fabric and I think the bow looks great on you.

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  12. Looks great!

    How do you manage to find good fabric at Spotlight? I wander round my local one, but rarely find anything to buy. Where are they hiding the cotton shirting? And all the other cute fabrics I see on people's blogs?

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  13. I really like the colour. The bow is rather nice. I'm sure Anna will be in the routine in no time. Imagine how many friends she would make there! Where do you take your machine to get serviced?

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  14. Great blouse, I am SO with you on the surprise-matching-buttons-with-insanely-cheap-fabric thing!

    PS don't do French seams... oh my god, so much work .... just zig-zag the edges of the fabric and you'll be fine.

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  15. I bow down to you. My blouses and cut but I make so many mistakes trying to sew after a long day at the office.

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  16. I love bow blouses, and yours is so demure. Presumably the sleeves were meant for women who sat meekly at a typewriter all day instead of striding around hand on hip like they own the place. Awesome!

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  17. Lovely! I have this pattern, though I've not yet made it up. It's so nice to see it on a real person. It looks like your fabric has a bit of body to it. I think you'll get more of the effect seen in the pattern illustrations by pulling the bow out more (so that the ends and loops are about the same length). Then, with the help of gravity, it will flop down more and the proportions will be better. It looks great tied as a tie. Definitely you want a half windsor, not the real windsor. It's super easy to do. Here's how to do it. http://www.tie-a-tie.net/halfwindsor.html However, if you do go for the tie effect, you'll probably want to shorten your ties so that they end at the waist or just a bit higher when tied. Good luck!

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  18. YUM YUM what a lovely shirt pattern. don't agree you need tying help - think you did just fine on your own!

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