Thursday 23 April 2015

Let's fly away Mimi Blouse

Little preamble: 
Me: Shall we go for a walk? We still haven't explored the surrounding area.
He: Yes sure. I will take my camera in case we see some birds, deer...
Out and about.
Me: Can you take a picture of me?
He: Yes sure.
Me: Wait. I have to take off my coat.
He: What??? I can't belive it. Are you taking every opportunity to get photographs for your blog?
Me (broadly smiling): YES!
Does this sound familiar to you?
 

It looks like I'm working my way through Tilly's sewing patterns. Because next on is the Mimi Blouse from Tilly's book "Love at first stitch". But what can I say, I just love Tilly's style (just to warn you, I'm also having the Francoise pattern in my stash and I'm eyeballing the Arielle skirt).


I started to fit the Mimi Blouse last year, but couldn't get the fit on my shoulders right. You can see a photo of the muslin on Claires Blog where I wrote a guest post about Muslins. (It's the "fitting a blouse" photograph near to the end of the post.) I gave up on fitting the blouse. But the thought that I gave up (and got defeated by a piece of clothing) kept nagging on me. Thus I started anew and succeeded :)



Alterations: The biggest change I made was to add 1 1/4" to the yoke at the shoulder to adjust for my square shoulders. Before, the neckline didn't lie flat, but now it is! Adding so much fabric to the shoulders meant that my neckline changed a lot and thus I had to draft a new collar and facing. I also did my usual 5/8 forward shoulder adjustment.

I had the feeling that the sleeve hem looked a bit tight on some photos of the Mimi blouse. Thus I added 3/8" to each sleeve hem tapering to nothing towards the armhole. I also raised the sleeve cap by 3/8" and moved the shoulder point forward 5/8". That's it. These are not a lot of changes for me and I managed to sort them all out in one afternoon.  



Construction: I followed Tilly's instruction, which were brilliant as always. Tilly suggests to sew the side seams first and then to attach the collar. I think for my next version I would prefer to set in the collar flat first and then sew the side seams.


Fabric: It is because of this fabric that I decided to revisit Mimi. It is super soft and drapey and I knew immediately that it is perfect for the blouse. I think it is some viscose polyester. I bought it from a market stall in my new home town for £2.99/m. Guess what convinced me to buy it? The birds, haha. It looked awful on the bolt, so many creases. Ironing helped :) However, it was off-grain. A lot as you can see on the photo below. But that didn't stop me to cut the blouse.

Off grain fabric.

Do I like it? I love the blouse, it looks so playful and feels so nice on the skin. I was planning to wear it with my Delphine skirt (version 1 and 2) like Tilly does in her book. But unfortunately due to my sway back, there is a massive fabric balloon on my back. It just doesn't look pretty, sniff. But I had a rummage through my pattern stash and found the Mabel Skirt pattern from Colette patterns. I'm planning for ages to make that skirt. The time has come :) Mabel is a tight fitting jersey skirt and I think will look lovely with Tilly's blouse - if the blouse is not tucked in - that's how I plan to wear it.

The first button is gold-blue because I didn't have enough of the blue ones.

Will I make it again? Ahem, at the time of typing version two is already made up and version three has been cut out. I'm in love :) I hope you are getting not bored, but I try to not show them to you one after the other! Have you ever been so enamored with a pattern that you HAD to make it at least twice - without sewing something else in between???


19 comments:

  1. Another great garment! Well done, for fitting the Mimi! The fabric is absolutely gorgeous and the colour looks great on you! x

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    1. Thank you Charlie, I was at first not so sure about the color but then as always it was the birds that got me, haha.

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  2. Beautiful blouse! I love the color and the birds (and I sneak in pics for my blog whenever I can, lol). Your adjustments turned out great on you. Finding a pattern you want to make over and over again is awesome!

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    1. Thanks Kristin. It is difficult for me to take photos at home because we don't have a garden so I have to go out for a walk if I want to take them. So every time we go out I dress up in a new made and hope we will have a chance to photograph them :)

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  3. I'm worried - you are making so many lovely things at the moment - what's going on sigh the wedding dress? I am eagerly awaiting progress report!

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    1. Don't be worried :) there is some procrastination with the wedding dress because I can't decide if I should insert bra cups into the bodice or not. I think I might because I can't find a bra that will fit me and does not show under the dress, buh.

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  4. This looks gorgeous and really well fitted. Well done on persevering! I was so close to chucking in my Emery dress earlier this month after multiple failed muslins but I'm stubborn and eventually managed to resolve everything.

    I fully sympathise with not being able to tuck blouses into skirts. It always makes me look like a puffy potato sack which is never a good look!

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    1. Thank you Jo. It does feel amazing to get something fitted after such a long struggle, doesn't it? And yeah for stubbornness - I thinks that a very convenient trade for a dressmaker :) haha the puffy potatoe sack is a good comparison. Have to remember that!

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  5. What a lovely blouse! fun and love the color. You know it never gets old - its like magic - how you can find a piece of fabric and toss it around a bit and then the magic comes when you fashion it into a lovely garment! Its just amazing and fun. Enjoy its really pretty.

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    1. Thanks Nancy! And yes you are right about the magic of creation. It is especially amazing if you start with something your are not quite sure about and then it turs out better than you imagined :)

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  6. This is such an elegant blouse. You look lovely in it

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    1. Thank you Kaitlyn. I still struggle to find skirts to wear with the blouse, but hopefully I have time to make some soon :)

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  7. Ha Ha!! Love the stealthy blog photos, and your blouse is gorgeous. I seem to be working my way through Love At First Stitch too, and am currently looking out for the perfect fabric for Mimi. I'll look forward to seeing your other versions.

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    1. Thanks Lynne. I guess Lescha should be used to it now, so I was actually surprised that he was surprised that I got clothes on to photograph. I'm glad I'm not the only one working their way through Tilly's book :) I hope you will find some drapy soon so that I can have a look :)

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  8. The conversation about blog photos sounds familiar - I do a similar thing whenever I'm out with my Mum! I really like your Mimi blouse, the fabric is so pretty. It's reminded me that I haven't made one for myself yet and maybe it needs to climb up my sewing queue. Looking forward to seeing version 2 and 3!

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  9. beautiful, I have been meaning to make this and keep changing my mind about what fabric to use!

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  10. Your blouse is lovely and the fabric is perfect. I understand wanting to make the same pattern several times, having just finished SEVEN of the same pattern, without sewing anything else in between. I have an old Vogue pattern (now out of print) that's a 3/4 raglan sleeve cowl neck pullover and it's perfect for wearing alone or layering when it's chilly out. I have the fit figured out and it only takes me about 10 minutes to cut one out and a couple of hours to make. I'd made three of them last year and by the third one, I had the fit mastered and fiddled with the construction so it goes together well. You're picky about fit, like me, so it makes perfect sense that you'd make several of the same garment. It usually takes three times for me to get it right, then I can add the pattern to my library and just breeze through other versions the next season.

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  11. well done for persevering i certainly paid off its a beautiful blouse

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