The Blouse Completed

Hooray! I finished my version of CLD's The Blouse Perfected (TBP). For me, it is The Blouse Completed - you know, better done than perfect. But surprisingly after all my goofs, I really love it!

After my foul on the collar band, as well as uninspired use of the stripes, were corrected, I went on to even  more spectacular goofs. These are only spectacular to a sewist. The kind that ruin a zen moment in sewing.

First, compliments to Louise Cutting. This may be my favorite all-time pattern of hers. The instructions alone are worth the price of this pattern. Clear diagrams. Succinct language. Great sequencing. And, as I've come to expect, the best techniques for achieving a high-end ready-to-wear look and feel.

I was looking forward to her instructions on sleeve plackets. I have done these before, once, on my V8746 shirt. I had to do one of them twice, so I guess you could say I've made them 3 times before. But I knew CLD version of sleeve plackets would be divine to follow. And they were.

Plackets not so perfect

But.

I confused my thread tracing for the sleeve pleats with the thread tracing for one of the plackets. And so one ended up in the wrong place. After the ceremonial teeth gnashing, hair pulling, and chocolate eating, I hatched a plan. Note that if you are perfectionist I recommend you stop reading.

I took the two sleeves to my cutting table and placed one over the other, right sides together, lining up the plackets, not the raw edges. And I started whacking off fabric until they were the same shape again. This changed the sleeve head a bit and that worried me. It also forced me down to 1 pleat, not three.

But I actually like the resulting sleeve even better. 

Sometimes sewing is magic this way.