I'm Not A Dentist

I wrote a whole post yesterday, but then somehow it disappeared into the ether. My Squarespace account doesn’t even show a draft. It’s like I imagined the whole thing. Honestly, I almost cried when it disappeared. Anyhow, here is attempt number two! T’s & P’s that this one will get published.

So, I worked up a muslin of the double-breasted blouse. Hilariously, in plain muslin it looks like some kind of dentist’s smock.

I started this draft by tracing off a TNT blouse pattern. The original has dropped shoulders, single-breasted button placket, and a stand collar. For this draft, I straightened the line of the shoulder seam and grew on the sleeve, extended the center front by 1.5”, and added a camp collar instead of the stand. The original is below:

So, there are a couple issues with the fit of the new version. First, the underarm pulls a bit. You can see the drag lines pointing up toward the shoulder point in the top photo. With a grown-on sleeve, there are going to be some folds in the fabric here naturally, but it’s a question of evaluating if it’s putting strain on the underarm to the point of ultimately causing damage. You can see the creases on the finished left sleeve even after I’d taken it off.

The next issue is a problem with me being lazy in my construction technique and not really a fit issue. The collar doesn’t lay quite right; you can see it most in the top photo. Luckily, this is just because I put in minimal pins to hold the collar in place while I stitched it on. It’s bias cut, so it stretched out while I sewed and it’s overlapping at the CF by about 1/4 inch. For actual construction, I’ll interface the collar piece and hand stitch it in place for precision.

This next one isn’t technically a fit issue either. Again, I was trying to “simplify” the pattern (i.e. cut corners) and opted not to draft a back neck facing. I have two options here: draft a back neck facing and live with it flipping up or stitch it down OR hand finish the inside of the collar. In reality, I just need to choose here. I really like nice finishes on the inside of my garments, I never ever regret taking the extra time, and I’ll likely choose whatever is going to look the most polished.

The last thing I have to decide is which fabric. I have a gorgeous lightweight Tencel twill in a marigold yellow and a whimsical cherry print cotton on a navy background. Since all my local fabric stores are closed, this one may come down to which buttons I have in my stash.