Simplicity 8640 as Folkwear Armistice Blouse.

Still catching up with stuff from last year!

I saw a piccie of Folkwear’s Armistice Blouse and fell in love, not so much with the top one, but that gorgeous white one at the bottom.

But it’s kinda expensive to buy and get sent over (postage can be kinda crazy). And the wonderful Sewsquirrel, who stocks lots of Indi patterns, doesn’t stock Folkwear. Oh well.

Then I realised that perhaps I could make this pattern from my stash that I’ve never used before, work. You can’t see clearly, but the blue version has a collar. I liked the sweetheart neckline too. The centre front panel is wider than the Folkwear Armistice Blouse but I decided fiddling round with the pattern to make it a bit smaller wasn’t worth the effort.

I cut out the bodice, and instead of shaping in for the waist, I just cut it straight down, then extended it to get the length I was after. It worked!

Here’s a close-up of the neckline and crochet. I’d made the collar wider than the pattern, thinking it might make it look more like the Armistice Blouse, but it just looked weird. So I cut the collar down and used more of the crochet to edge it. I don’t have a close-up of the final affair but it looked heaps better. I’ll have to see if I can get a close-up and add it in.

See how pretty that fabric is? 🙂

• Fabric/trims/notions used

Grey Rose cotton poplin, and some white cotton broadcloth. The poplin with grey roses was a present from a very dear friend of mine. I’d been having a bad time of it with the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and he decided to treat me to this gorgeous fabric. Thankyou “T/S”

Crochet edging by me, in white cotton, size 40.

Tie is a silk sash I got as a free present with my first order of dyes from Dharma Trading.  Nice! I’ve worn it with a few other ties at the waist, and even without any tie, which actually looks better than I thought it would.

• Inspiration

The Armistice Blouse from Folkwear.

• Construction notes

It went together very easily. I bound the inside of the collar with a small facing, clean-finished by that great technique where you sew the outer edge of the facing to the interfacing, and turn that edge inside out, hiding the raw edges inside. The facing extended an inch or so below the start of the inner panel.

The crochet set everything of so nicely 🙂

I did a silly thing. I simply extended the pieces straight down rather than narrowing in for the waist. And DUH!!! I needed to have widened them from waist down for my hip. So now it has a rather long side-split so it fits without straining across my hips. Hey, it works!

 

• Cost

The fabric and sash were a gift 🙂

• Last word

I really love this pattern. I’m now on the lookout for the Perfect Fabric for another version, probably this time truer to the pattern, with that lovely peplum instead of extending it straight down. Not sure about the tassels on the corners of the peplum though! Might not be too practical for laundering. We’ll see…