turning violet, violet
Remember when, a few weeks ago, I wrote about how I am very nearly the slowest sewist alive, and I embrace that? Well, my friend Antoinette (of TangerineTrees) apparently decided to take that as a challenge. She invited me to the world’s-smallest-and-fastest-sewalong, since she had just acquired the Colette Violet pattern, and it had been languishing in my stash for a long while. Yes, I know that now is supposed to be the time to focus on the Laurel for a variety of reasons, but I guess we’re rebels like that. ;-) Join us in 2016 for our Laurel sewalong!
I knew this would be a (hopefully wearable) muslin, but still, to trace/alter/cut/fuse/construct over the course of a few days would be a tall order for me. One that I failed at actually, but … I’m still calling it a win since I only finished one day late! This was my first blouse with a collar, since I’ve fallen quite behind with the Archer sewalong. If only my hands would work as quickly as my plans.
I really like this feminine, classic design. For a t-shirt-and-jeans girl, it says a lot that I think this could be an oft-worn style in my wardrobe. It will go great with my plethora of jeans, but I could cute it up with a skirt or any variety of accessories. This is my first Peter Pan collar — not just self-made but in the entirety of my closet, but it won’t be lonely for long because I’m already scoping out Violets number 2, 3…
Regarding sizing, I wasn’t really sure which way to go, because this was my first Colette make — not counting the Taffy blouse, with which I went so far off course that it can’t be considered. I started with an 18 (46″ bust). I did this because, while I usually choose the 44″ bust size to fit my shoulders, I figured that the C-cup block would make a difference. It worked fine, but I will shave off a little from the front upper chest between the armscyes next time. Aside from that, the only other change I need to make is to pivot out a bit more at the hips, which is an adjustment that I should have made this time but miscalculated.
I lengthened the top about an inch, so I decided to add one more buttonhole at the bottom, spaced just as the rest were without redistributing them. I do like the eight, but that’s about the only thing I like about the way these buttonholes came together. My one-step buttonholer on my sewing machine starts at the bottom of the buttonhole, so I should have worked in from the shirt’s edge, but I sewed the first one the opposite direction, and it came way closer to the edge than I’d anticipated. But since I’d rather stick a fork in my eye than unpick a buttonhole on a wearable muslin, I ignored the warning bells and trudged forward with the remaining ones. Problem is, since I didn’t grade up enough at the hemline, the buttons want to pull all the way to the end of the buttonholes. Not a good look:
So, I decided to slipstitch the whole thing in place so that the buttons will stay a tiny bit away from the edge of the placket. Fortunately the shirt can slip over my head so I don’t need the buttons to be functional. But yes, this slipstitching took quite a bit longer than unpicking the one buttonhole would have. Thanks for noticing.
Due to the sizing missteps, time will tell how comfortable I find this particular make. But I love the design, and I consider the wearable muslin a success — I know what I want to change, and I learned a lot about blouse construction in the process. Thanks for the challenge, Antoinette! (Her Violet is here!)
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P.S. Do you Instagram? It’s fun! I joined a long time ago but have become much more active recently. The pics I post are often sewing-related, e.g., my progress during this sewalong, but I sometimes snap doggy, foodie, other life photos… I’m moonthirty there if you want to play. :)
