In Which A Bit of an Enthusiast Allows True Love To Flourish in the Form of a Sencha Blouse and some Beautiful Threads

Hallo ducks!

A long, long time ago, in a life before sewing my own garments, there was a piece of fabric. It was beautiful. It was fluid. It was textured. It was grey. It was patterned in a navy all-over thirties-style/modernist geometric thingy.  It belonged to Someone Else.

The lovely hoarder that is my mama kept this gorgeous fabric tucked neatly in a drawer- who can blame her- but every time I went for a visit I would sneakily fondle this luscious pile of threads in a covetous manner. I mean, I didn’t go all Gollum or anything quite as tricksy Hobbitses as all that but… you get the idea. Then one day I discovered Colette Patterns (still pre-garment sewing) and knew that the Sencha Blouse and this fabric were meant for each other. They made a secret avowal of their love in my head and finally- finally- I convinced mama to hand the goods over. It was a mental battle of wits and not a little glint in mother-dear’s eye told me this fabric had better find a good home with me or I might never inherit the family collection of sewing items (I have it on good authority- my sister’s- that if she can have the oak four poster and the jewellery then I can have my pick of the China, Books, Vintage Ephemera and Sewing Related Goods. My brother (the youngest) will get the House because, of course, he’s the male and it was entailed on him by a stroke of good fortune on my (the eldest’s) part since I am just No Good at DIY or house projects. I also think the weather Up North is abysmal. He can have the place.)

Back to the handover. Glint dealt out, I swiftly put the precious goods in my suitscase and never looked back. Today I present the finished project. This blouse is every bit as lovely as I imagined and although there are no crisp lines to my darts, this georgette? Chiffon?- I’m still no good at identifying fabric- never was going to hold them. It feels lovely on and I’m extremely smuggety-smug at my muslining.

This is still a brave new world for me- I sewed the muslin of view 2 up (although the eagle-eyed among you will spot that this is version 1) and stared at a mirror for a good long time. No ideas. Google searched. Realised that I Just Need To Get On With It: i.e. opening out the tight bits and pinching in the excess from the loose bits. Well, it worked. Hence the smugness. To wit: I will be posting in the future a pointers post about changing the neckline and the armholes for personal comfort since there was very little out there to go on- perhaps it will help someone else. Oh- more smugness- the whole is French Seamed and rather pleased I am with that.

Please tell me you love the buttons? Grandma’s tin is coming in wonderfully useful- and I hope I’m not imagining that these are probably vintage glass buttons reclaimed from some elderly garment a long time ago. They look old. The feel old. And they’re just beautiful. I like to think a former family matriarch wore these in an-altogether-different era.

By the way-  I am working on the next pattern of the 6 Pattern Challenge but this just had to be sewn first!