Corazones Rockabilly Blouse

What am I looking all chuffed about in the picture about? Well, I've finally finished sewing myself a new super-cute blouse! I've been pretty busy recently, what with co-organising Brighton Craftaganza, thinking about and planning MMMar '11, worrying about ecological damage and social injustice, trying to make the best out of my unstable work position, plotting and scheming towards new creative ventures, making new connections and friends with local creative peops AND hunting for a new flat, but it'll be a cold day in hell when I'm not in the process of expanding my wardrobe by having a sewing project on the go!

Maybees you remember this awesome blouse pattern from my Recent Acquisitions post a while back? Well, despite having bought a frigthening number of patterns since writing that post, I am ever-committed to using all the patterns I have at least once, otherwise they get passed on, and I've been particularly excited about trying this blouse pattern. It was tricky to decide which of the variations to try first, but I think the Corazones fabric leant itself best to view C.

This fabric was actually a gift from my mates, along with some other amazing super-special fabric, for my 30th, which was a year and a half ago now. I'd been hanging onto it, waiting for the right project to come along.

I took my time with this project. I often find it's the garments that look the simplest that you have to take care to get a good fit. I traced off the original pattern, as I always so with my vintage babies, and added some extra width at the waist and hips. I cut out the blouse and stitched the shoulder and side seams, THEN pinned the darts, so I could get a decent fit for my shape. I probably should have got my boss to help fit the back, but it's so cold in our workroom that I could onlt bring myself to fit a blouse after the heating in my flat had been cranked for an hour before I could peal off my layers of clothing!

Here's the blouse in a (far less curvy) mannequin, so you can get a clearer look of the shape and neckline:

I massively LOVE the standup collar. So simple but such a nice feature. However, it does put one fly in the ointment: it makes it tricky to wear a cardigan over the top without squashing down the collar, which kind of spoils the how effect of the blouse. I'm either going to have to seak out a secondhand cardi that doesn't have the round 50's cardi neckline I tend to do for, OR I could fashion a cardigan with a wider neckline than my current selection of cardis provide, OR I'm going to have to wait til it's warm enough to wear without a cardi at all (that could be a LONG wait!).

I did actually make the bow section as per view C, but it looked wierd with the all over print so I took it off. That meant I had to re-jig the fastenings. I only had four of these sweet vintage buttons, which worked out ok when the bow was present because the top had a popper. But when the top bit was exposed, I had to make another button hole and move the bottom button to the top and sew closed the bottom button hole and stitch popper there instead.

So, if I figure out the cardi sitch, expect to see this cutey pop up during MMMar '11! How are you preparations going for MMMar '11, if you have chosen to take part? Have you got any any bits completed since signing up?