In anticipation of summer...my Butterick B5711 blouse

For the Fearless February sew-along, I picked a button-up (or is that button-down?) blouse pattern. In the two years that I have been sewing, I haven't made a single thing that has buttons going down the center. I never thought myself capable of matching up a buttonhole to a button well enough that it doesn't pucker up at all the wrong places. The other reason for tackling this project; this is going to be my stepping stone towards making jackets.

I decided to make View A, which has the flutter sleeves. This would have looked really pretty in  Georgette or similar lighter fabric. But in my crisp cotton, this looked more like armor. I wanted to change this to puff sleeves, but didn't have enough fabric left over to cut the sleeves for View B. Solution: release tucks at the bottom of the sleeve! I copied this technique from a Jessica Howard dress I bought a couple of months back. And it all ties in so well! The blouse has release tucks in the pattern already. I am sooooooo happy I thought to do this.

Before

After

   

Deviations from pattern:
1. Changed the self-facing to appear on top. I felt having the button placket ( if that's the right word) folded to the inside made it look more dated.
2. And the sleeves ofcourse.


New technique tried on the garment:
1. FRENCH SEAMS!! (that is happy shouting :) )
      This is my first time completing an entire garment with french seams and I am in love with the way the garment looks on the inside.