Progress on Simplicity 1692

Whew, am I pooped. Our little puppy has been quite a handful lately. On top of that, I got a flu shot last Friday and I think it had some kind of effect. I've been sleeping a lot lately. But....I have made progress on the 40s blouse! I decided to go with view D minus the buttons on the shoulders. At first I thought the buttons were decorative, but it turns out they are actually functional. Nevertheless, I decided to go without them; I'm not a big fan of things dangling from or around my shoulders. As a result, the neck hole is rather small, but I can still get my head through it without a lot of grief so I'm keeping it that way.

A few nights ago I cut out all the pieces:

A good chunk of fabric left over, but not enough for any of my patterns. Save it for trim? (btw, I think my fabric my actually be 100% rayon, not sure though) I also had to cut out some interfacing for the collar area. I used a lightweight fusible interfacing like the pattern says to. You probably wouldn't want anything to heavy if you're using silky, light fabric like I am.

There are two tucks on the front that give the front some structure.

Next I sewed the shoulder seams of the silky fabric together, giving the blouse a real poncho look...yuck! (ponchos are weird)

Next came the back and front facing(s) for the collar area.

Step one: fuse interfacing to fabric pieces, making sure the iron is stinking hot:

Step two: when dry, (it takes a while) sew shoulder seams of these fused pieces (no pics, it was late and I was tired)

Step three: pin these pieces to the neck edge of blouse and hope it turns out neat enough (again, no pics of this part)

Finally, press the back and front facing pieces inward so they don't pop out:

So the blouse still has a distinct poncho look, but its coming together. Next comes side seams, zipper, and hemming. So far this blouse has been pretty easy. If you like 40s clothing and can sew, I highly encourage you to try this pattern. Its easy and doesn't use a lot of fabric, a good pattern for using up any stash fabric! 

Well that's all I have for today, 

Happy Sewing!