Monday, November 23, 2015

Finished Project: HotPatterns 1169 Classix Nouveau Refined Peasant Blouse (v2)

Ever since I made my original version of HotPatterns Refined Peasant Blouse last summer, I've been wanting to add another one to my closet. I've been wearing the first version that I made nearly every wash cycle. However, I got a bit hung up on fabric choice for the next version. I absolutely love the cotton double gauze that I used the first time and have been very tempted to make a the second version using the exact same fabric in a different colorway, but that seems kind of boring, doesn't it?

I recently joined the FabricMart Fabricista blogging group, and you'll see me blogging a few projects over there over the next few months. For my first project for them, I wanted to use a pattern that I was fairly comfortable with but choose a fabric that had some "wow factor". I'm a little afraid of sewing with silk (so slippery!), but I felt like making the HP peasant blouse pattern up in a silk fabric would check both of my requirements boxes.

HotPatterns - Refined Peasant Blouse
HP Peasant - back view
I've already reviewed this pattern before, so I won't do an in-depth review in this post, but I will talk a bit about the fabric and construction choices that I made for this version.

Original review/post for the HP Peasant Blouse pattern.

Refined Peasant Blouse - envelope
The fabric that I used was a cranberry-colored silk double georgette. I felt that it would be a good choice for both its drapiness and ability to handle the tons of gathering that's in the neckline for this blouse. On the other hand, like you'd expect from a drapey silk, this fabric was as slippery and wiggly as heck.  I thought about stabilizing it with a starch or a gelatin, but have read enough horror stories online about how difficult it can be to wash those out afterwards that I was wary. (If you have any suggestions for how to stabilize a wiggly silk in a way that washes out easily, I'd love to hear them.)

Surprisingly (to me), the fabric pressed extremely well, and if I made a pressing error, it was also easy to steam the miss-pressing right out of the fabric. I wasn't expecting a fabric as wiggly as this to press as nicely as it did. On top of that, the fabric also raveled less than I had expected.

Here's a closeup view of my gathered neckline:

Refined Peasant Blouse - gathered neckline

I wanted the insides of this blouse to be clean-finished, so I used French seams as my seam finishing method:

French seams
I only made one additional fit alteration to the pattern for this version--I gave myself a little more room in the wrist cuffs because I found them a bit snug on my first version.

Now, in a lesson of how different fabrics behave differently with the same pattern, I had done an FBA (rotated into the neck gathers) for the first version. I didn't necessarily need the additional width that this gave, but I was concerned about the blouse riding up in front if I didn't add extra length there. I think that this alteration worked well in my reasonably-drapey-but-firm cotton double gauze. However, in my super-drapey-not-at-all-firm double georgette, you can see that I'm getting a wrinkle at the bust indicating that there's perhaps too much fabric there.

GOMI-worthy twee pose
Given that I've already altered the master paper pattern, I think I'll be sticking with fabrics with not quite as much drape for future versions--like doing another double gauze version or perhaps a cotton voile or lawn.

10 comments:

  1. Such a beautiful color on you! I kind of want to just copy this project altogether-- it looks lovely. I have yet to try a Hot Patterns design-- this may be the one to put me over the edge!

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  2. I wondered if you would return to the HP shirt. I remember when you made this several months ago and talked about what to do with the BHD (big honkin' dart). It's interesting how the same pattern can fit differently given the fluidity of the fabric. What happens if you pinch the extra fabric at the bust vertically?

    Kudos to you for working with slippery silk! I have all the swears with mildly slippery rayon bemberg. =)

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    1. Thanks, and yeah, it's going to be a while before I work with silk again. And I'm with you on rayon bemberg--I'd probably make more lined garments if working with lining fabrics wasn't such a PIA.

      I should try pinching the fabric like you're suggesting and seeing what it does.

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  3. I love this so much.The colour is fabulous and you really can't beat a peasant shirt. I think that working with that fabric deserves a medal. It does look gorgeous though. Xx

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  4. Fantastic Job! Love both the colours you've made this out of now. I've been coveting this pattern for summer in the hopes it might eventually come out in PDF form ($45NZ is a tad steep for a printed pattern!). I'm thinking I might give the new Roscoe blouse from TrueBias a whirl instead :)

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    1. Huh. I'm surprised that HP never put out a PDF version of this, but you're right. The Roscoe blouse does appear to be a pretty close match based on the line drawings and sewn up versions that I've seen!

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  5. Wonderful outfit dear!

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  6. What a stunning color on you! And the neckline is really great. Lovely blouse!!

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