Sew U Blouse: Finished!

Behold, my last completed project from 2011!  In our previous session of sewing class we focused on making a blouse.  I somehow missed both pattern sales at Joann in September, so I decided to use the blouse pattern in Sew U, which had, until then, just been sitting on my bookshelf.

I mentioned before that my sewing instructor and I decided to go rogue and not follow the pattern completely because it was either missing instructions or my instructor knew how to complete some steps more easily/in a better way.  Pair this with super slippery fabric and I ended up with the most frustrating sewing project I have yet encountered.

Just cutting out the pattern pieces from the fabric was frustrating.  I have no idea what type of fabric this is, but it seemed to change shape constantly.  The pattern pieces would warp almost every time I picked them up so I had to keep ironing them to reshape them.  The same thing would happen when I put the pattern pieces away when I finished each session of sewing.  I'm shocked that when sewed together they actually resembled a blouse because of how many times they warped from their original shape!

By the time our final sewing class rolled around in mid-December I was about 75% finished my blouse.  Then we had a long break for Christmas and I let the blouse sit while I finished up the rest of my Christmas gifts.  Once I was finished all of the gifts and my mom's birthday present, I had some free time and was trying to decide what to work on.  I pretty much forced myself to sew until my blouse was finished, because I figured if I didn't finish it then, I would never finish it.  I hated it that much!

Here's a good example of how this fabric warps.  I took this picture a couple of days after I ironed the shirt and it has all of these weird ripples in it just from hanging on the hanger in my closet.  Believe me, those lumps below my waist aren't from my mid-section!

I think the blouse turned out OK, but it would have been much better had I liked the blouse pattern and the material better.  I flat felled all of the seams, which turned out awesome!

   

This pattern has a pretty small collar and I think it looks a little strange.  It's also quite boxy even though I took the muslin in to account for this.  And then there's that sizable ripple on the back left near the bottom.  I am fine with living with these problems and just wearing this shirt under a sweater.  There is no way I am going to spend any more time fiddling around with this fabric!

The good news is that I really love the look of this fabric and love how it feels when I'm wearing the blouse, even if sewing with it was a nightmare.  I will be sticking to sewing with cotton and wool for my next few projects!