I worked on this linen tunic for almost a week and a half. My sewing mojo has felt a little off lately, so I decided I wanted to try something more difficult and take my time and work at it. I've always admired pintucks on blouses so I decided to give Simplicity 2365 a try. I made view B. The instructions for the pintucks made absolutely no sense when I read them the first time. Luckily, I got on Pattern Review and found a review that explained them properly- I love the Internet! It seems Simplicity left out a little bit of information. If you already knew how to do pintucks it wouldn't be a big deal, but I needed all the instructions I could get. I also used this tutorial from AnaJan on Burdastyle.
Don't look to closely at my pintucks- they are not exactly straight. I think of them as "organic" pintucks. I kind of like that they are a little uneven with the texture of the linen. The linen I used I originally bought for a pair of pants, so it is probably a bit heavier than what I was supposed to use.
I payed careful attention to inside details on this tunic. I used french seams throughout and I even bound the sleeve seam with bias. No raw edges to be found. I had a terrible time keeping the collar symmetrical. I didn't like the instructions for sewing the collar facing. The instructions said to pin the facing and then sew by stitching in the ditch on the outside. I did that and it left me with a weird little flap below the seam line. I trimmed the facing and tried again but trimmed too much apparently. I ended up having to make a facing (the gingham) and slip stitched it over the collar facing seam by hand. I actually really like the result. I know I've seen contrasting facings like this in mens shirts before.
I love the sleeves. Probably the most time consuming sleeve I've made, but I'm completely happy with how they turned out. All in all, I really like this pattern. The pintucks were fun. I've always liked tunic length blouses, being pretty tall. And it has a lot of variations that I'm looking forward to making in the future. This one's a keeper!
My attempt at "modeling"
I made the skirt, too. Just a simple cotton a-line. I lined it so I could wear it with tights. I'm ready for fall, if you can't tell.
I love that "organic" pin tucks term :)
ReplyDeleteLove this blouse - I would have just overlooked this if I'd seen it in a pattern book but made its really nice.
ReplyDeleteThe wobbly pintucks are not obvious at all - you're probably just looking at it with a supercritical eye because it's something you've made. I think it's just as pretty on the inside as well :)
I always hand-finish the inside of collars if I want them to look nice :P. I like your contrat facing, though, so you win in the end :). I think I'm due for a project that requires thinking and attention to detail. Oh wait, that's the winter coat that I keep avoiding working on. ;)
ReplyDeleteLooks good! The sleeves look especially great.
This is a lovely blouse ! I've been wanting to do a pin-tuck project for a while, and this is very inspiring !
ReplyDeleteI really like the fabric color too !