sew + tell: camelia’s afternoon tea blouse

Camelia is here today from the Advisors Circle. She has stopped by in the past to share her Terrace Dresses and Neighborhood Sweatshirts. Now she’s here to tell us all about her latest make. Take it away Camelia!

Name: Camelia
Where can we find you on the internet? Blog, Instagram, Pinterest, Flickr

Project details
Pattern used: Liesl + Co. Afternoon Tea Blouse
Fabric used: Stretch lace for the yoke part and chiffon for the rest of the blouse

Did the fabric work well?

Yes, the fabric is perfect for this pattern! The lace is very lightweight and soft, and because it is stretchy it makes the blouse very comfortable. The chiffon was listed as crepe chiffon when I bought it, and it has a bit of a structure. Maybe that helped also with handling the pattern pieces when sewing. To cut the chiffon I added a layer of paper under the fabric and used the rotary cutter to cut.

How did the sewing go?

Sewing went surprisingly easy. I made a muslin for this pattern so I knew how the pieces would be going together. This is what I love when making a test garment, besides that I get to fine tune the fit I also get the opportunity to see how the pattern gets sewn, how the pieces must come together. In this case it is important to get a few seams to meet perfectly, like the bands on the sleeves and the bands on the bodice to meet with the sleeve bands. To hem the garment, I made a narrow hem as instructed for the bodice part, and for the sleeves I used a different method. First I serged the edge with a three thread setting and after that turned two times, using the serged edge as a guide. I like this method, and it worked well with this soft fabric.

What was the best part?

The best part, was sewing this blouse! There are so many details in this pattern: the sleeves get a bit gathered into the sleeve bands and then the sleeve bands come into a perfect V. (Well you need to use an extra pin or baste it before you get sewing on your machine to get it perfect.) Also the yoke has an interesting shape.

I think this is an exciting pattern, starting with fabric choice; combinations you can can do with contrast colors, different prints or combining different fabrics and also sewing up all those nice details!