Happy and blessed Sunday to all. I had to share this one because someone, somewhere who struggles with gathering fabric may want to know about my experience. I hate gathers. Not visually. I detest being responsible for making them because I worry that the fabric does not lay neatly. Oddly, I have SEVERAL gathering feet amongst my machines however, i rarely use them. I did this the old fashioned way… manually (long tail, gathering stitch, pull bottom tail until satisfied)About a year ago, I purchased @Mccallpatternco Butterick B6457 that sat in my stash lonely.
During a Joanne stores fabric haul, the “summer of doom’ (2020), I found this beautiful challis fabric. The sales woman in the fabric department recognized and asked me what was I making? As usual, I told her that I did not know. Often, the fabric tells me what it wants to be abs I oblige. Thus weekend I introduced the challis to the pattern and it told me this is what it wants to be.
Challis flows well, is lightweight however I’m not a fan of sewing curves with it. I’m also not a big fan of sewing curves on challis with interfacing however I was determined given that this print is perfect for the pattern. With that, the process began and yes, the the devil laughed at me when I tried to attach the neckline to the bodice
I won’t lie. This neckline was a struggle because everyone’s body is different. Whether average size bust, large bust, broad shoulder or round shoulder it’s important that the gathers aren’t too taut of too loose so that the fabric allows the keyhole (opening) to lay evenly and the gathers aren’t bunched. This is where the mumbling began.
Using my body form, I pinned and repinned then finally got it to lay so that the gathers were even, the v neckline was centered and the keyholes were perfect
Modifications: I did not attach the neckline as instructed. Instead, I sandwiched the blouse between the neckline pieces (pattern part 5 and 6)
Would I make this again? Maybe in style A (see above pattern image. I made style B)
Difficulty? I cut and assembled everything except the neckline in 45 minutes. However my lack of patience once I added fusible interfacing and the aroma of my husbands cooking made me walk away from it. This morning I returned refreshed ready to wrap it up. Now I need some cute espadrilles if we are ever allowed to socialize again.
Tell me what you think. I’d love to hear your experience with this pattern.
The Selfless Seamstress 