New Look K6107 Blouse

Hi! So I'm trying to hang on to summer just a little bit longer, even though it's nearly the middle of October - I made another sleeveless cotton blouse!

This one is from New Look pattern pack K6107 which came as a free gift with Sew magazine a few months ago.

The fabric I've used is some Liberty cotton lawn bought in the sale at the beginning of the summer - it was a pre-cut 'remnant' of 1 metre so just enough to get this blouse from. Actually it turned out I probably could have got the short sleeves out of it too but never mind. I just loved all the little specks of colours - I think I'm going to call it my 'hundreds and thousands' blouse!

I chose my size based on the finished garment measurements - there is a LOT of ease in this pattern and it would have swamped me if I'd gone with the body measurements. I went with the size 14 which is just about right in terms of ease of movement when I'm wearing it.

There are body darts in the front and back, and gentle gathers at the front yoke. Adding the rouleau button loops and underlap to the front was probably the fiddliest bit, but not too tricky.

I decided to use shop-bought bias binding for the neck and armhole facings rather than making it from the main fabric (pure laziness) but I don't think it matters, it's all on the inside anyway so no-one's going to see it.

I love the little buttons I got for this one in the shape of white flowers with coloured centres, they pick up the pink in the fabric nicely - although I did debate over purple or yellow ones in the shop!

Please please excuse the creases in the photos - I couldn't wait to wear it so after sewing the buttons on Thursday evening I wore it on Friday to the Knitting & Stitching Show - and had a couple of really lovely compliments too!

I seriously need to work on the fitting issues for my next dressmaking project - as always on me the neck line comes quite low (which is why I've got a camisole on underneath) because I'm obviously short from shoulder to bust - if anyone's got any useful tips for adjusting this one on patterns please let me know! I also had to take a little dart into the underarm to stop some gaping so probably need to have a go at a full bust adjustment too.

Otherwise I'm really happy with this blouse, it makes me happy, even though if I want to wear it now I'll have to layer it up for the colder weather. It's definitely one I'd have another go at - the body darts give a bit more shaping which suits me rather than being too loose and baggy, and if I can sort out the low neckline it'll be a useful one for wearing to work.

I'm just in the last stages of finishing the cardi I've been knitting so I'll show you that soon, and tell you more about my day at the Knitting & Stitching Show - my poor bank account took a bit of a battering!