I have used up the final 2 yards of this fabric from my stash to make a pretty short sleeve blouse. Fortunately I love the print as I now have three garments made from this cotton fabric originally purchased from Fabricland in Salisbury. As I plan to make a White crepe de chine blouse with lace overlay collar I decided to “test run” this pattern which is a hack from a very old McCalls 6438 dress pattern. I changed the shaping of the collar and had previously drafted a different one-part sleeve. Although I have made up the pattern as a blouse in the past, with my variable weight and figure it is always a good idea to test run a pattern if it has not been sewn in the recent past. As the fabric is busy and I wanted some way to delineate the shawl collar I decided to add a frill of White Broderie Anglaise trim from my stash. The short sleeves are cut from the long-sleeve pattern that was in the poly bag and when I checked the width at the hem I realised that they were too wide. Not to be thwarted, I decided to gather the hem into a band and that easily solved the problem! I shaped the hemline so that the blouse can be worn outside of jeans  but also provides plenty of length should I decide to tuck into a skirt. All seams have been overlocked and the facings have been top-stitched to the bodice front to ensure they don’t flap about. So all in all the inside of the blouse looks tidy and smart.

Original Dress Pattern