Thursday, April 28, 2011

Simplicity 6930, Ruffle Shoulder Blouse

Simplicity 6930 Thumbnail

I was first seized by this project two years ago and it has been on the "right away, sew it up" list since then. To be fair, I actually sewed it last June--only a year behind--but it hung needing the hem to be fixed for nearly a year before I got to it. The hem on this gave me fits, and the back hem is *still* crooked. I never understood why people hated hemming, but now that I've made so many tops recently I feel the pain! Skirt and dress hems never give me much trouble, but hemming a top is a nightmare. I have slightly crooked hips and shoulders and while everything kind of evens out by the time you get to my knees, shirt hems are a whole other story.

I saw this top first, the Abaete Lauren top, on Weekend Designer. He gave instructions for drafting the top, but I am more of a frankenpattern-er than a drafter, so I went through the archive to see what I could find.

S6930 Envelope

My original plan was to make a princess seam top and catch the ruffles into the princess seam, as in Simplicity 2360. This vintage 1966 pattern has a side princess panel that seemed perfect. However, I realized I'd still have to draft a ruffle and felt unenthused. Then I hit on the idea of using the sleeve from the Duchess of Windsor dress, BWOF 03-2008-116. I had even made the dress before and had the sleeves already traced out. So much easier.

Bullseye
I adore the print on this fabric, though I'm not wild about the texture of silk crepe in general. It has a sort of "paint with water" look of smeary dots, and I love that it has both pink and red in the print so it matches either color skirt. Since it's a floral pattern I placed the pieces carefully to avoid the headlights situation. Or so I thought. Could I have done a *worse* job? Not only is there a GIANT flower centered absolutely perfectly on one side, the other sides looks small and saggy because of the slightly lower placed second flower. Thank goodness I had enough fabric to re-cut the front. I don't normally buy extra fabric so it was really lucky in this case!

Back Slit with Button As the envelope back shows, this pattern is drafted with a button back. I have ranted before how the button back discriminates against the single woman. I changed it to a center back seam with button slit at the top, figuring I could put a zipper into a side seam if need be. It turns out, this is very easy to pull over the head even with the button closed, so I even tacked it closed at the top.

Lining/Underlining As the fabric is slightly sheer, not to mention a little rough (this is not high quality silk crepe) I lined/underlined the blouse with cotton batiste. The sleeves are unlined and French seamed. I did a faux Hong Kong finish at the center back seam, and treated the batiste as underlining at the side seams, which are French seamed. I finished the neckline with a bias strip, the outer edge of which I hand-stitched to the underlining to keep it in place. I put in the hem by hand.

Front Closeup Consistent with most of my vintage pattern experience, there is a LOT of ease drafted into this top. My pattern is a size 12 for 32 bust. I have a 32 bust but my waist is a couple inches larger than it "should" be for a size 12. As far as I can remember, I didn't adjust the size of the pattern (though as I recall I lengthened it--my memory is hazy) and it came out HUGE. Although it's not portrayed that way on the envelope, the description of the garment is "overblouse." Maybe that explains the size? Anyway, I added front and back vertical darts to take up about 6 inches of ease (two 1.5" darts in front, two 2" darts in back). It is still quite loose and can be pulled over the head.

Front
I am pleased with how well this knockoff turned out. My sleeves are not as ruffly as the original--if you visit Weekend Designer's post you'll see he recommends a circular ruffle, and the Duchess of Windsor sleeves are full but not a full circle--but they are dramatic enough for me. It looks fab with my Burda 01-2009-112 corset waist pencil skirt, if I do say so myself, and after much experimentation I found a way to style it with a red skirt as well (the belt was the issue--I wish I had a beige-ish one but haven't been able to find such a thing).

I'm glad I finally got around to fixing the wonky hem so I can actually wear it! I have no idea what I was thinking when I first put in the hem. Not only was the front hem crooked by at least 1.5 inches, the front was about 2 1/2 inches shorter than the back. So bizarre. And of course it still isn't right. I finally decide to put a hand hem in something and now I'm cursed to have to re-do it 3 times!

All photos are here and the pattern review is here.

48 comments:

Summer said...

Love the blouse! It looks great. You are so right about back buttoning blouses--plus, not comfy to sit in!

I just noticed yesterday my shoulders are massively crooked so I feel your pain :( I don't think they'll even out any time soon.

Unknown said...

What a cute blouse! :)
Ashley x

Victoria said...

Very lovely blouse!!! Nice way to mix the patterns!

Karin said...

Really flattering! The style, fit and colour are all perfect for you. I made a knit top similar to this last year, I never thought to tuck it in. Now that I have seen how good this shape looks tucked in, I am going to run off and try it straight away!

judidarling said...

You are so trend forward this this outfit. The neutral shoes are lovely. These warm colors light up your face and are so flattering. Tucking in the blouse and the perfect fit of that skirt--wow! BTW, I think the long length would be smashing.

Adelaide B said...

My hem in any kind of slinky material looks as though I was drunk when I did it. All my lining hems look like crap. It is on my list of things to improve.

On another note, this is a really cute top and looks great on you!

Meg said...

Loving it! You + ruffles = good thing.

Unknown said...

That top looks great with that pencil skirt!

Rachelle said...

You really have an eye for the right print/right pattern combination! So often, I make stuff regardless of whether the print suits the pattern, and end up with a lot of pieces that would unwearable, if I had discriminating tastes. Luckily, this isn't the case, but I sure do like seeing garments made by people who make better choices!

Lovely work!

Cyndi Deal said...

I have been following your blog for quite awhile now. Since almost the beginning.

I don't think you can call yourself slapdash anymore. This is absolutely first rate!

Can't wait to see what is next.

Mrs. Micawber said...

This is adorable, and I love your shoes. I can just see it really popping with a leafy green skirt. (Excuse me; the Fashion Police are hammering on my door. I love bright colours too.)

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Sorry had to delete last comment. Bad iPad typing! What I meant to say.... Love the top!

Little Hunting Creek said...

Cute top - I love those ruffles

Uta said...

Adorable! It's perfect with the pink skirt.

Debi said...

Love it!!!

ELMO said...

I like yours better than the original.

KID, MD said...

Love it LOVE it! And it is fabulous with that skirt.

Audrey said...

The top is so cute and it does look wonderful with the skirt. I am impressed with your Franken pattern skills. Thanks for the link to the Weekend Designer blouse. I must have missed that post when it was originally posted. It looks like a fun pattern to draft.

Amanda S. said...

Very fun! I love the side ruffles and just ruffles in general. So glad you finally fixed the hem!

Lisette M said...

I made the Duchess of Windsor dress a while back and I adore the fluttery sleeves. They look wonderful on your top.

badmomgoodmom said...

It meets your "do I feel cute in this?" criteria. It is so cute.

It reminds me of a jumpsuit I used to wear in high school. It was read. The top portion looked just like that top, ruffles and all. I remember feeling so chic whenever I wore it.

Vicki said...

Love the top! Perfect with that skirt :)

Eugenia said...

Beautiful looking top - well worth making the effort to finish it! It looks wonderful paired with that skirt.

Sewlovely said...

I really like this look on you, especially the last pic with the top tucked into the high waisted pencil skirt. Very flattering.

Sew-4-Fun said...

Love it!

Faye Lewis said...

Now that is beautiful!

Sunny Optimist said...

Fantastic! This look is so chic on you and sooo flattering. Bravo!

Sewingelle said...

You look great in this. I love the sleeves a lot more on your top then on the BWOF dress.

Shannon said...

This looks great- I love it with the pencil skirt! It's very flattering on you. I'm impressed with the way you went from the inspiration piece and merged the two patterns together to get what you wanted. The result is gorgeous!

Lisa said...

You look beautiful in this ensemble . Seriously the coulur is beautiful on you and I adore the ruffles.

Kitty Couture said...

Love the ruffles, love the print, *love* it with your corset waist skirt! I already said this yesterday or the day before, but you really do rock pink.

Linda L said...

Really cute blouse/top. I like the ruffles and like the fabric as well.

Nettie said...

I love this!! It looks great with the skirt, too.

urkye said...

Beautiful blouse! I love this sleeves :)

Greetings from Poland:)

Jessamyn said...

"Overblouse" doesn't mean big, it just means that it's worn over the waistband of your pants or skirt, at a time when blouses were normally tucked in.

Love the ruffles!

Dana said...

I'm glad you can finally wear it too 'cause it is super-flattering on you! Nice work.

meli88a said...

What a clever idea to add ths ruffle sleeves to the blouse. It really makes it special. I also really love the combination with that pencil skirt -- the colors are so spring, and the cut of that skirt makes your waist look teeny!

McVal said...

Don't you hate it when you have redo things over and over??! I hate my seam ripper and yet love it...
It turned out VERY cute!

Anonymous said...

That ease amount is insane. I usually wear a 34 bust, but recently bought a size 10 (32.5 inch bust) 1970's blouse pattern b/c I couldn't track down a size 34. Hoping it has a similar ease issue so I don't have to grade the pattern up.

Big in Japan said...

While I'm not personally a ruffle gal, these ruffles work so well with the fabric design and your finished look is real swell, good job!

Valerie said...

Very nice! I think pink is lovely on redheads.

gwensews said...

Super cute top. It looks terrific with that high-waisted skirt. Very nice.

teresa said...

This is one of the most flattering things I've seen you in and one of my favorite things you've made. I'm not a fan of loud prints (I know you loves you some) and this print is just damn pretty and makes you look pretty. The color is nice, love the high waisted skirt with belt. Either it's very slimming or you've lost weight. Nice job.

Anonymous said...

Yes this work, the colour combo, the ruffles are you - neat silhouette - La Sewista

Michelle said...

Love the addition of the ruffled sleeve to this top! I would never have thought to do it, but I think I may have to imitate your approach!

Cennetta said...

Trena, I love this outfit. It fits you to a "T".

sertyan said...

OMG! this blouse is so beautiful! Love the feminine look and it looks great on you