Super Online Sewing Match II Round ONE! The Sutton Blouse

EEP! This is the first challenge of the Super Online Sewing Match II with Sew Mama Sew! We were presented with the Sutton Blouse by True Bias, a loose style blouse with a V neck meant for soft drapey fabrics.

I initially thought to myself that I needed to switch it up a bit, as I’m not usually the type of person to wear loose tops. I’m always afraid they will billow out and make me look bigger than I actually am because of my bosoms. I thought about turning it into an actual kimono, but then this is a competition and this blouse deserves to be sewn as drafted :) As it turns out, I love it! After taking pictures, I went out on a date with Jake and it was so comfortable and I felt really good in it, which is always something you want in a garment, right? Also, thank goodness I got pictures before our night out because after Jake dropped queso on me, I totally dropped pizza on it!! : 

Using my measurements, I was between the 10 and the 12. My bust always throws me into a bigger size, but I usually pick the smaller size and do an FBA so everything fits everywhere else. The pattern suggests to cut the smaller size since there is so much ease in the pattern. I went ahead and just cut the size 10 and made a muslin with it to make sure. The fit seemed to be great, I just felt a little choked out with the v neck, so I deepened it by 2 inches and also widened it by 1/4 inch. I find I have this problem a lot, where some people report a neckline to be too revealing, I feel like I’m wearing a turtle neck. Maybe I just have a long chest? I don’t know. But I love the new deeper V I made for myself. I expected to want to add length to it since I’m 5’9 and it was drafted for women who are 5’5, but I actually really like where the length falls so I kept it as is. The other MINOR change I made was making a box pleat in the back instead of the inverted pleat. I don’t know why, but i just prefer the look of the regular old box.

Confession time: I’d never sewn a french seam before sewing this shirt. I KNOW! Crazy town. But this pattern calls for them all throughout and guess what… THEY ARE AMAZING. I will absolutely be using them more often. The insides of this blouse are so neat and professional! Looking at the inside is almost as satisfying as looking at the outside!! I love it.

The directions on this pattern are so awesome and so straight forward. I think I had a major advantage with my actual garment because I used the most obnoxious slippery fraying cheapo fabric in the world for the muslin. I usually sew muslins with basting stitches just to see the fit, but I decided to sew it exactly as described so I could have some experience while sewing the actual finished product. HOLY COW sewing with quality fabric was like a gift from the heavens!!! It was seriously such a pleasure to sew this up after the all day stressful event of putting the flimsy muslin together.

Harts Fabric generously gave us a gift certificate to use their fabrics for this challenge. They have some pretty amazing fabric choices there, but I was too nervous about having enough time to buy online and have it arrive at my house in time (where was this part of my personality in school when I had term papers to write and saved them for the night before?) so I went to a local shop here in Austin, The Cloth Pocket to buy something. I saw some of the other challengers got their fabric in the mail from Harts Fabric REALLY FAST, which was super impressive! The fabric I used for the bodice is a super soft cotton lawn print from Japan, I LOVE the birds on it! I wanted to add some pizazz to the blouse so instead of using the lawn throughout, I chose a nice beige lace for the yoke. I love how the beige and the brown and the blue all complement each other. It makes it a nicer looking top without being too formal, I could wear it out to a nice dinner or shopping at the grocery store. Pretty awesome! Hooray for versatility!! 

I had some sweet Art Gallery voile in my stash that i decided to use for the bias binding. I thought the softness would be nice around the neckline, plus I love the print and I always like having a secret little fabric pop that only I know is there on the inside of my garments :D

I wanted to make sure all the stitching on it came out really nice and clean, so you bet your bippy I changed the thread from brown to beige when sewing around the yoke by the neckline and sleeve :) I’m really happy to have taken the time to do that because I love the end result.

One sweet detail of this whole top is the high low hemline. I said it before, but it is true. The instructions are so clear, this little bit was so easy to execute. The lines are so clean and professional.

Over all, I’m pretty stoked about this new top! It fits so much nicer than I could have imagined :) I can’t wait to see what the other girls sewed up!