The 60's Called, they Want their Acid Back.

(Hmm... is that a spider on the wall?)

When I first walked by this fabric at Gail K's it was instant love. But it being a 100% silk charmeuse and VERY nice quality, and I being broke.. well it wasn't happening. But then I got a bit of extra spending cash and I rushed back and got the last 1 3/8 of a yard. Apparently it was a lucky buy off of some overstock designer house and they only got two rolls. Or whatever you call it. But its this crazy optical print that would be GREAT for making something that needs to be cut on the bias, like my cowl neck TNT pattern.

I was actually scared to sew with it for a long time. I started out with a pattern I'd made before, but out of knits. Its Silhouette 550 that I've modified to the point it really on resembles the original in that its a cowl neck (same pattern I used for the polka-dot blouse). I created the butterfly like sleeves using a tutorial from BurdaStyle member Sunnie. The next thing I did was make the trial run for a woven out of a polyester charmeuse. A task that led to lots of swearing and calling my Mother at some odd hour crying.

"What's WRONG!" she asked, all worried and concerned.

"Polyester charmeuse" I told her.

"Oh ICK" was her only reply, as that was all she needed to hear to know what a devil of a time I was having. This did lead me to a discovery of what I call "The Cheater's Baby Hem". I learned to serge the edges of the fabric with a tiny rolled hem and then I would fold it under twice and top stitch. This is what I did with the silk, but it was MUCH MUCH easier, as silk will actually let you steam press it for a better finish. I did leave the sleeve hems serged as it, cause I think they looked neat. And this blouse goes very well with my Vogue 8672 skirt.

And I love this blouse so much I made another long sleeve version out of gold silk jersey.*







*Please note that the gold version is not quite finished. And I know I'm not smiling in any of these pictures but its the end of the day and I was pretty beat. I'll try to smile next time, HONEST.