Liberty Afternoon blouse

Here's my beautiful Liberty fabric from Sewbox, swiftly transformed into an Afternoon Blouse. If I calculated the total amount of time it took to make it, the result would easily fit into an afternoon. In reality however, it took a couple of weeks as my boys have been on school holidays. I managed to fit in the odd twenty minutes here and there, in between herding them around museums and plying them with Easter eggs. It's really not my favourite way to sew, but beggars can't be choosers and I do have a goy-jus blouse to show for it, so all is well.

After my worries about the Simple Sew pattern (which incidentally has now gone to a much better home than I could give it), I decided I wanted to make something with minimal angst, that fitted well and could showcase the lovely floral print. With this in mind, choosing to make a second version of the Afternoon Blouse was a no brainer (my first version is here.) This time, I actually managed to cut out the correct size (8 everywhere, grading out to a 12 at the bust) and the fit is much more comfortable. I could still probably have done with a teeny weeny FBA - maybe one day I'll learn eh?! Nothing else out of the ordinary to report, except that I chose to make the rounded decorative neckline, just because. I still found it a bit of a fiddle attaching and pressing the facing but the end result is fine. The point at which the necklines cross did tend to gape a bit when worn, so I just topstitched that bit into submission.

As I suspected, the busy floral print completely camouflages the decorative neckline (you can just see it in the photo above, but that's probably because of the top stitching). That's just an observation though, not a criticism - the Liberty lawn fabric I used was perfect for this pattern. It barely frays and is crisp enough to press the facing to the inside of the blouse without any fights breaking out. In fact, I didn't even bother understitching it because it just stayed exactly where I wanted it to. I'm not the only one who thinks this way either. Just this morning I spotted Karen from Did You Make That?'s lovely Liberty version. And I promise we didn't confer beforehand, it's just sewing serendipity!

If you feel the need to add a classy little number to your wardrobe but only have a few hours sewing time to spare (an afternoon, for instance), then this could be the pattern for you. My thanks to Susan at Sewbox for generously allowing me to try out the Liberty fabric.