Completed

The Violet blouse:

The Good:

One of the reasons I let this sit for a while before making it was that I couldn't decide which side of the fabric to use.  I finally decided to use the wrong side, since I had originally wanted to make this in Swiss dot, but couldn't find any.  I'm glad I did - I think it's much more interesting:

I'm also glad I decided to use piping around the collar and down the button placket. I think the lines of the design would have gotten lost without it in this fabric:

And I'm happy with the job I did on the piping.  It really wasn't that much extra work.

I learned a useful new trick too with this pattern:  when you need to turn something under 1/4" and press, it's easier to do this by first stitching along the edge 1/4" - the needle holes in the fabric make it easier to turn, and you can see exactly where you need to turn it!  This is especially helpful on curved edges.  You can remove the stitches later if you want to, but in this case I didn't, since it was on the inside of the garment at the edges of the facing.

The Bad:

Well, I think this style might be a little "cute" for me.  I keep forgetting I'm pushing 50.  Also, the fit is a little more constricting than I like across the back when I put my arms forward.

And no matter how much I try to iron it, and in how many different ways, I just can't get the collar to lay down flat.  I think it's probably due to user error, not inherent in the design.

And The Ugly:

I did a pretty good job with the buttonholes, but on the bottom one (thankfully), my scissor slipped when I was cutting it open and cut through the stitches.  I had to stitch it back up by hand:

It doesn't show too much when the blouse is buttoned though.

The Final Verdict:

I don't think it's worthy of my green Ginger skirt, but it's wearable.  The pattern was marked as a beginner pattern, but I probably wouldn't recommend this as an early project for someone new to sewing, mostly because setting in sleeves can be a little tricky.  I've done it plenty of times before, but I had a little trouble with these sleeves; not really sure why.

I'm not sure if I'll make this one again, mostly because I think the style is probably a little too young for me.  Because the neckline is wide, I don't think it would look very good with another collar style.

Have you made the Violet blouse, or are you planning to?  What was your experience with it?

Begun

Now that my Sencha blouse is finished, I've begun work on the Violet blouse.  I bought the fabric for this blouse together with the fabric for my green Ginger skirt, and intended to make them in succession, so I could wear them as an outfit.  But then the Sorbetto pattern came out, and I was a goner . . .

I spent part of a cloudy afternoon last week tracing out my pattern, a job made easier and more enjoyable by the use of Hubby's new desk in the office I redid for him for his birthday.  Thanks, Honey!

Sunday afternoon I got down to the task of cutting out my pieces:

Another cloudy, rainy day.

When I made my Sencha, I traced out my pieces and did my markings with tailor's chalk - the chunk kind.  Needless to day, my markings were thick and less than perfect.  So this time around I decided to use a little trick I learned in a sewing class long ago:  marking with a sliver of soap!

Worked like a charm, even against this white fabric.  I'm really not sure why I didn't do this on the Sencha.

The markings are faint, but clear enough to be able to cut out the pieces:

And of course, they wash right out when you're done!

Does anyone else use this trick?  I remember it being a real revelation to me when I learned it.

Ginger

Well, I did end up ordering those two Colette Patterns (Ginger and Violet).  Seeing Erika's finished Violet Blouse made me want my own, and then I discovered a Ginger Sewalong.  How could I resist?  Sunni at A Fashionable Stitch is hosting the sewalong, and has a great lineup of guest bloggers who will be doing a series of posts to help guide even absolute beginners through making the skirt.  And may I just say, I wish I could have the skirt she made to kick things off?  That fabric is to die for!  And the red piping!  swoon . . .

Now, I'm not an absolute beginner, but I do feel that this sewalong will be a great learning experience for me.  I have been sewing since my teens (yes, 30+ years ago), but only intermittently.  In junior high and high school, I made a lot of my own clothes, and when I was in graduate school, I got into making quilts and a couple of Folkwear patterns entirely by hand (because I enjoy hand stitching, and also because I didn't have a sewing machine at the time!).  About ten years ago, I made Hubby a couple of shirts that he still wears and claims are his favorites.  And around that time, I subscribed to Burda magazine and made several pieces from the patterns included.

But my love of sewing is on-again/off-again.  I'll do a bunch of sewing for six months to a year, and then my machine will sit, alone and forlorn, for five or more years.  One of the reasons I haven't been as interested as I used to be is that I feel I'm much harder to fit than I used to be.  I now take one size for my hips but one to two sizes smaller for my waist, and I never learned to do any fitting or tailoring.  So I'm hoping to learn some of those skills through my participation in the sewalong.

I was down with some strange virus for the early part of the week, but yesterday I finally made it to the fabric store to get my fabric, and look what I found:

Is that not the cutest thing?  I love the retro vibe!  The pattern is quite large:

And the fabric is slightly thinner than I'd hoped to find.  But I just couldn't pass up this print!  I'm going to treat it like a stripe, and matching stripes is another thing I'm hoping to learn from the sewalong.

I also got some fabric to make a coordinating Violet blouse to go with it!

This is a cotton shirting, almost like a dotted swiss, but the dots are squares:

I actually think both sides are really cute, so I'll have to decide which side to make the right side.  I'm leaning toward the tufty side . . .

I decided after the fact that I'll do some black piping around the waistband of the skirt and maybe around the edge of the collar of the blouse too.  I have to go back to the fabric store anyway to get lining fabric for the skirt.

I did get my zipper, and also some hemming lace that matches the zipper, just because!

So now all I need are my patterns!  I ordered them on Monday, and they shipped on Tuesday, so I should be getting them soon.  In the meantime, I have to wash and iron the fabric . . .