Tada! "Bev's Buttons" Blouse

I absolutely love this blouse!   It's been a long time in the making - I originally cut it out and fitted it back in September/ October last year in my evening class. But with one thing and another - a two week holiday; a chest infection/ possible asthma diagnosis; and not to mention fireworks that terrified Finn every time I walked out of the door - by the time I finished my course at the beginning of December, all I'd managed to do was attach the interface to the fabric and sew my pin tucks.

This pattern was the Tilly and the Buttons Mathilde blouse - and I think I probably over estimated what I could achieve.   Luckily, I had my teacher on hand for the pintucks, but everything else I had to learn on my own - darts, french seams, gathering of sleeve top and bottom.  The french seams were the worst - they seemed to go against all sewing rules - you NEVER sew wrong sides together!   I googled them.  I you-tubed them.  I read sewing reference books.  I asked Mum.  (Poor Mum spent two hours in bed laying awake trying to remember how to do them and even got up in the middle of the night to try them out on a couple of teacloths!)   In the end, I just went with it - Tilly's patterns have photographs rather than line drawings, and there are also online tutorials - even though it felt so wrong.  However, the seams are beautiful!  (I have to admit cheating and only using french seams on the yoke and not the side seams as per the instructions - I understand that it's nice to have lovely finish on your seams inside your garment, but it's only me that sees the inside of my clothes and I'm not that fussed!)

This blouse is back to front - the buttons are on the back so, again, I cheated by not sewing buttonholes.   There's no way I could do my buttons up at the back so the top is always going to go on over my head.  So it was easier to just sew the backs together by the buttons - they were always just going to be for decoration, never for function.

Rather perfectly, I received some beautiful buttons from my friend Bev as part of my Christmas present and they are exactly the right colour for the blouse.

I love topstitching - it just neatens everything up beautifully and there was MILES of it in this blouse - lovely job.

This was me playing about trying it on before sewing the buttons on - complete with walking trousers and slippers.  So stylish!

I wore my blouse to work today for the first time and had so many lovely comments that I can't wait to start on the next one.   I love the shape of this blouse and I think it might become a staple in my wardrobe, just in lots of different fabrics.   I'm thinking geometrics.  I'm thinking plains with funky coloured topstitch and massive buttons.   I'm thinking maybe a plain with a lace yoke and sleeves.  The possibilities are endless!