So, I am on a sewing bender. I have always wanted to find a few patterns and perfect them to fit my body and just keep making them. I like this blouse garnered from the pages of Female Magazine, but it has its faults. See those red dots? That is where the shoulder seams fall. It makes wearing the shirt sort of off-putting. This is a big boxy blouse. Or should I call it a huge boxy blouse? Does anyone know? Is there a way to fix this, or is it just that the pattern is so large that the seams need to go somewhere.
I removed the collar, redistributed the excess cloth, made sure the shoulders were attached to the right snip marks and reapplied the collar. The above blouse fits much better than perviously and the seams hardly make themselves known compared to before. But. Help?
I would even consider a creative idea like gathering up some tucks where the shoulder turns. Creative suggestions anyone?
I keep talking about a sew along but not acting on it. Here is the reason. I am working like mad to get The Clever Guild, my teaching web site, up. I am creating content, uploading how-to’s, and working like mad, behind the scenes. The site is almost together, and the workshops are almost entirely uploaded. Soon, I will have a few moments to breath and have some fun.
In the meantime, my new book is being shipped this week! I will post a paypal button (tomorrow) and sign a few copies if any of you would like to buy direct!
And my friend Victoria Findlay-Wolfe interviewed me about color and posted it to her blog today. Please check it out and tell her I said hello.
P.P.S. I have been blogging in the last two weeks but forgot to categorize the posts properly, so you have not been able to read them. I was wondering why no one was commenting!
Melanie Testa 
Hi Melly good to see you back on your blog. I am not a clothes sewer these days so have no useful advice on garment construction. I also didn’t know I could get your book direct from you so I went ahead and ordered it from Amazon, and they advised me yesterday that they are expectingto deliver it sooner than their original estimated time. Sooo excited can’t wait for it to arrive! Love your work as always x
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Dang! If I had known you were going to be selling your book, I would have ordered it from you. North Light shipped mine last Thursday, sooooo, soon I will be head down, taking notes, and staying up late reading!!! The blouse. It is hard to advise without seeing the pattern. My instinct would be to change the sleeve to a raglan style. That would be pretty easy to do and you could adjust the bulk. Another idea would be to put the drawstring treatment like you have in the sleeves, across the back. The strings could hang down at the side seams. That would ease the bulk and you could have fun with stitching on the gathered parts. I went out and bought a new french curve. I had one 40 some years ago in home ec, but I have no idea where it is now. Thanks for popping up for air, I was getting concerned. (You know me, worrywart.)
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Yay! A teaching website!!! I’m excited. No advice about the shirt, sorry. Also not a seamstress (although I do enjoy watching project runway). Sounds to me that you’re heading in the right direction, though. Where did your posts go if they didn’t show up here? We’ve been missing you! I love the spirit of your blog, it’s a lift.
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Oh, and last week I went on a tear and sewed up a set of those little purses you put in Cloth Paper Scissors a couple years ago. I didn’t make my own fabric, but I loved your silkscreening. An idea for the future. I wrote about you and the on my blog on April 12th. You’re very inspiring!
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That new website of yours sounds very exciting. I’m looking forward to it! I’m afraid I can’t help you with the pattern; I’m too much of a novice yet. As for the sew along, I have to admit that I was too impatient to wait any longer and started on my own today by tracing out my pattern. There is a certain amount of preparations to be done before I can start sewing, as I want to make a muslin version first, and I’m also going to do surface design on the back before I cut out the ‘real’ garment pieces. Very exciting!
I’m eagerly awaiting the arrival of your book! I’ll order it from my usual bookdealer, but rest assured that when (!) I come to NY, I’ll bring it along and ask you to sign it for me!
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Can’t wait for the book! Looks like it is going to be just as beautiful as your last one!
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Hmmmm….. I don’t know why the blouse is doing that. Is it just because the sleeves are so narrow and the body so wide? You could cut a curve into the body parts (the pattern pieces are very square) but then it would be a different style. My batwing number has gathers at the shoulders, but your blouse sleeve doesn’t rest on the shoulder. Ooh – unless you do something like you did at the sides and draw the shoulders up with tape? That could be fun!
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Can’t wait to see all the possibilities for the Clever Guild! I am not a garment construction person, but I would recommend going to an alterations shop and discuss the possibilities with someone who does this sort of thing all the time. Perhaps they can give you some pointers on what direction to go with the blouse/shirt/boxy garment. I agree with Roobeedoo: some shirring up the sides so you could create some asymmetry seems like a pretty cool idea.
xoxo
L
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I’m not a garment guru, either, tho I did make my fair share back in my late teens and early 20s. Could it be that these are “raglan sleeves” and the seam is supposed to be like that? If you Google the term there are some sports knit t-shirts that show the seams in multi colors…
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