FO: Blue Laurel Mimi Blouse

Now that I've showed the finished product of my White Mimi Blouse, I'm gonna back it up a bit and show you the "wearable" muslin. After my experience trying to make this pattern years ago, I knew it would need some alterations to work for me, but I didn't know exactly what I needed to do. I wanted to make a muslin that would hopefully be wearable, and I achieved that for the most part. So one day I pulled out the pattern and traced a combination of the size 6 and 7 (after the 8 turned out so enormous). I went ahead and raised the neckline 5/8" and cut a size 7 everywhere except for the shoulders and neckline, which are a size 6. The more I delve into fitting my body, the more I realize that I have narrow shoulders compared to the size of the rest of my body.

I used a fabric I bought at The Sewing Studio so long ago that I did not have a record on my blog (maybe 2011?). It was a designer remnant, so I don't know the exact fabric content, but my guess is a rayon challis. It's light and drapey and breathable plus I liked the demure color and pattern at the time. I've been wanting to sew this pattern up in this fabric for quite a long time, so it just fell into place. The shirt itself turned out "wearable" if not my favorite example of my work. I went into this just overcast stitching the seam allowances like I usually do, but this light weight fabric didn't seem to benefit much from that and the insides are not as secure as I would like. We will see how it holds up. Also while I was sewing the gathered areas on the back and shoulder, I accidentally pressed the gathers and the results seem like tiny puckers all the way across. I'm hoping they will puff back up after a wash, but it was a bit of a bummer at the time and it doesn't look super great at the moment.

I made the shirt the regular length of the pattern and it turned out a good length to be worn out or tucked in, so I was happy there. Apparently I did not stay stitch the neckline soon enough in my sewing process - I believe the pattern didn't tell you to until a ways in? Or I was just steaming ahead and did things out of order, who knows - so my collar warped a bit. No amount of hot ironing and steam would straighten it out and it is particularly wavy on my left. Bummer. I also noticed that even with making the size 6 at the shoulders, it was still quite wide there on me - almost like a drop shoulder (you can see this on the left of the above photo). In this style of shirt, it just looks sloppy and ill fitting to have the shoulder drop so low. So learning curve with this being a muslin and all, I was able to make that change on my second version, but it left this shirt feeling a bit dumpy on me. The drop should combined with the width at my bust being a bit loose makes me feel a bit like this is a thrifted and unfortunate old lady shirt :/ I went down a size at the bust on my next version as well.

The back doesn't look awful except for my gathers/puckers at the yoke. Something about my collar makes it keep wanting to pull upward a bit at the edges too - maybe I cut too much off the inner edge for turn of cloth and now it's over turning? Is that a thing?

Here you can see the waving in my stretched collar :( Also there is a lot of excess fabric above my bust - even with the gathering I can see that it's too blousey there, making me realize I needed a hollow chest adjustment. I used simple pearl shank buttons I've had for who knows how long. They were a nice but subtle choice, I think.

I had one other snafoo with this shirt - When I was trimming the sleeve seam allowance, I accidentally clipped a hole in the sleeve cap :/ I blame the floaty fabric, but by the time this happened I was already not happy with the collar, so it just added to the overall feeling that this shirt is a bummer. I was able to interface the spot and sew a tiny seam to close the hole. I don't think anyone will notice since it's so close to the seam, but I know it's there. Ugh.

So this on was not a total winner, but since it was technically a muslin I can't really complain, right? lol Yeah right, I still will. I hope to still wear the shirt - as it is the fit is not very flattering, but I'm thinking if I tighten things up at the bust that it will at least be wearable. The true test will be if it gets worn for Me Made May - the time when I pull out everything even if I hardly ever wear it, lol. So we can't win them all, but this shirt lead to one I really like, so at least there's that.

Summary:
Fabric: 2 yards blue printed rayon challis - $9.00
Notions: Pellon SF101 interfacing - $1.00, 6 white buttons - $1.00, blue thread - $1.00
Pattern: Mimi Blouse from Love at First Stitch by Tilly Walnes
Time: 8 hours
Total Cost: $ 12.00