I loved it then and I love it now. So you can imagine my dismay when, trying it on for my closet clean-out, I almost ripped the center back seam.
The fit was close when I first made this blouse two years ago; thanks to middle age spread and a whole lot of rowing, my back is even broader now than it was then. I got the blouse on well enough, but trying to get it off was a chore, and almost resulted in a ruined blouse.
Today we had good sunlight despite the frigid temperatures, so I decided to take advantage of it and pick out part of the center back seam where it had ripped to insert a vent.
You can see here that the threads of the fabric got pulled away at the seam line:
I carefully unpicked the seam in the center back for about 6 inches.
To make a stable surface for sewing, I fused some strips of tricot to the seam allowance:
I cut a piece of black silk 2.75" wide and 7" long and interfaced it as well. Then I folded back 3/8" seam allowances and sewed those to the interfaced seam allowances at the opening I'd created. I did the stitching on the machine, but left long tails so I could do the first and last few stitches by hand. Once the vent piece was sewn to the blouse, I pressed it flat like a box pleat:
It's almost invisible, but gives me enough room in the back that I can once again wear my lovely silk blouse. It would have broken my heart to have to scrap this pretty blouse.
The hardest part of this project was making myself do it. Isn't it always the way with mending? Here's my little trick to keep the UFOs and mending pile from sitting for too long:
I hang the pieces to be mended on the knobs of my dresser! In the middle drawer are my socks; every time I need to get out a pair of socks (i.e. every day), I have to shift the pieces hanging in front of the drawer. Usually after about two weeks of this, it becomes tiresome enough that I just do the darn mending.
Do you have tricks to make you do your mending? Or do you let it pile up?
