Blouse of Perpetual Tedium

I want to wave a magic want and make this blouse done. Its taking forEVAH! I've done most of the hand stitching so far watching Downton Abbey, all the way through the Christmas Special. Now I have to figure out what I want to watch while finishing the rest of the hand stitching. I love this fabric so much that I don't want to take short cuts but its going to need a wash when I'm done because of all the handling.  I've TRIED to keep possible dirt and such to a minimum. Its not easy.  I'm doing the Colette Sencha, in case you are just joining us.

You can see the hole darning, overcasting, AND my hand stitching of the sleeve here.

how the stitching looks on the outside

So far, I've gotten the sleeves done and hand overcast one of the side seams. Truth be told I've had a lot of success with pinking silk, but my more couture minded readers will probably scold me for such atrocities. As it is, I ended up nicking a hole and darning it when trying to finish the sleeves. I'm sure had my kids been awake they would have learned some new swear words. As it was my husband got up to find out if I'd hurt myself. Oops. (Oddly, my kids can sleep through my temper tantrum but panic in a storm. My husband gets up if he so much as thinks I hurt myself but will sleep through a tree falling on the house.) Anyway... where was I? Right, the blouse.

 I did decide to use silk organza for the interfacing. When I was cutting out the blouse I used the selvage on the center back, to reduce bulk needed for finishing seems.  After consulting the instructions, I confirmed I only need interfacing on the buttonhole side. This meant I could cut the organza on the selvage side as well, sew up raw to selvage, and then turn the selvage in without having to 'finish' the inside seem of the organza. Make sense? Here's a photo*;

I undid the very end of the bias binding as I'm going to tack down the organza and then finish off the binding.  Then I'll just fold it over as per the instructions. I think I have how I want the hem to be figured out, but its hard to explain without photos. And those will come later.  And before I full committed myself to the organza interfacing I DID do a test run.

test run. 

 They look a bit wonky here because 1) I didn't line up the grains well and 2) I tugged and tugged as hard as I could. No ripping. I'm satisfied it will stand the test of time. Also, aren't those pretty buttons?

That's all for now. I might have to take a break from this thing and go sew something instantly gratifying, like another pair of Clovers and a knit top.


*If you are wondering why the orange pencil, its because my 55mm lens REALLY does not like focusing. Having that color contrast helps, but I"m gonna have to get a new 55mm for my close ups soon.