Butterfly Blouse


I had made this blouse in September for a, she liked it so, that went and got more fabrics to get 2 more made.

The first one [I wish I had taken a pic of it] was made on silk burnout chiffon in light pink, purple and beige.

The one I’m making now is a brown, dark green, gold and maroon Ombre [the colors don’t show that well on pics, sorry] poly chiffon. It has an imprint [jacquard, I will not call it so, since it is not all over]

I use tissue paper under the fabric to cut it. Cutting chiffon [and all slippery fabric] this way makes it a lot easier to control it and not have it run all over the place. I fond a roll of tissue paper at my local supplier that I use for projects where I’m using light slippery fabrics, especially silks. I tell you having a full roll of paper is a great help, if you can find one get it.

On this pic you see the lining fabric on top of tissue paper.

I had to play with the layout of the pattern some what, on this pic you could see how I over lap the pattern pieces for the under blouse [lining].

Here, it is easy to see the lay out of the top pattern, fabric and tissue paper. I placed the top [blouse] pattern on the cross grain of the fabric. The blouse been a “T” shape with out seams at the sleeves, I needed the width, and it was no problem with the fabric.

All pieces cut, I start sewing the lining. First I sew the armhole; I used the ¼” roller hem foot for a clean finish at the armhole. Because this is not such a close curve, I could use the roller with no problem.

[Wow, you could really see how old is my machine on this pic, but I love this machine, is it an OLD industrial SINGLE. My supplier thinks it is one of the first industrial machines made I bought it in NYC and I think is with me for 20yrs or more . At the moment I have 3 industrial machines; 2 straight stitch, (had 3 but sold one this summer) an overlock {Willcox & Gibbs, also old}. I also have 2 home sewing machines for the zig-zag.]

You could see on these pics, how well this looks when it is pressed. I had to admit that it does work better on silk. The first blouse had silk georgette as lining. The finish with the roll hem

looked great, again, whish I had taken a pic of it.

I did not use the roll hem foot on the blouse, I wanted to have a better control when making the hem on the sleeves.

The blouse has a V neck line; I had used corded piping to clean the neck line. I made the piping with baby’s yarn [it is softer and smaller than the cording for piping]. The first blouse, since it was light beige, the white yarn was perfect for it, it did not show through the sheer fabric. Thinking about this I made small piece to see if the white would work with the dark fabric. After I saw it did not I use black yarn [Thank God, I play with crochet and knitting once in a while].

I sewed the piping to the lining first, and then sew the lining to the blouse, the piping overlap at the center front, right at the point.

This pic shows how it looks when is done [the pic does not shows how small it really is, the piping is about 1/8”]

Finally it is almost done, I had basted it and left it ready for a fitting.