This blouse is made from the BurdaStyle pattern Ute Blouse, Variation B. This blouse has been in the works for so long. It had major potential for never being finished. The pattern is not easy but the fabric that was the real challenge. Just laying out and cutting this fabric took hours. Because the fabric is sheer, I originally decided to do an underlining as opposed to french seams. So I could the underlining and seamed together the body of the blouse (which is princess seamed, so three times as many seams as normal). But the fabric just didn't go together right and look rippled. So I set it aside. For months.Then after buying my serger a few weeks ago, I took apart the blouse and removed the underlining. I then stitched and serged all the seams. The bias-cut tie neck collar was applied painstakingly. Hems were finished by hand.
I really hate working with this fabric. It frays. It snags. It stretches out of shape. But the blouse is finally done. It's not perfect as far as construction but oh well. My main problem with the blouse is that the neckline is too low. It's fine if the tie collar lies just right but if it moves (darn that slippery fabric) then you can see the sheer-factor-required camisole. I'm not quite sure what I'll do about undergarments. I don't want lace to show. I discovered this blog (via angrychicken) about sewing undergarments. Fascinating. Perhaps I could make my own camisole. My new serger has a lingerie stitch! Or maybe I can just wear a regular old tank top.
I'm tempted by the idea of making the Ute blouse in an easy to work, shape-holding cotton. None of the techniques used are new to me. I know I can make this blouse quite comfortably. [Despite instructions that lump together completely disparate steps. Perhaps, I depend a little too much on pictures to guide me through instructions so I easily miss things if they are grouped in long paragraphs. I love that BurdaStyle has open source, copyright free patterns. I really do. I hate to criticize when it's free. But, I'd love it more if the instructions were easier to follow.]
The design of this blouse is actually very similar to a Burda World of Fashion blouse I made about a year and a half ago. The neckline on that shirt is too low to wear without something underneath. That blouse was intended to be a muslin but I was so exhausted after making it that I had no desire to repeat the process. I found the instructions frustrating then as well.
I didn't realize I was so wound up about this project until I started writing this post. I know I don't usually write much at all about a project. I just leave it up to the pictures. I have some more fabric that is the same as this except a different print. I'd like to use it but it's going to have to be really simple, definitely no princess seams.
