Chiffon blouse: What a journey!

Well I made the last few stitches today and now it's hanging on my wall :)
Of course it's not really done until I've worn it... And I will take pictures when I do.
My overall impression of this experience has been that this is an easy pattern, chiffon isn't hard to work with if you have plenty of tricks, and I still really love this fabric.
I very much like having stripe matched as much as I did.
The hardest thing was finding a usable hem finish. My machine roller foot would just not work with chiffon. Too squirrelly. I ended up doing a hand rolled hem.
The most annoying part was when I found a bright pink stain on the bust piece!

Lame!

I had to recut the piece. I did have plenty of yardage left over so it was more irritating than anything. Here you see the piece is wrinkled because it's wet. While working on this garment I kept it flat and starched.

Speaking of washing, after I cut I realized I had never washed the fabric. Usually I was right after I buy but this fabric just got bagged and then ignored for a year. I believe in washing before cutting.

Well I've run out of things to say so until next time...

Chiffon blouse: Sewing progress

The bodice is complete and here I have basted it to the skirty part. Do you like my stripe matching at center front? Eh pretty good?!

Let's make a blouse!

At some point last year I was shopping with my mum in Santa Barbara. We went to Fine Fabrics on State St. and picked up an amazing length of snake print silk chiffon in white and teal. I knew I wanted to make a sexy, floaty top with it. The owner helped me eyeball how much to get and I ended up with 2.75 yd because she cuts generously.
You know how it goes. The fabric sat around for a year while I was busy with other things. And so 2015 was the year I did no sewing. Well 2016 is upon us and my obligations have mostly cleared up. The chiffon started calling to me.
I contemplated for literally weeks before I decided on the kind of top I wanted. I knew I wanted maximum floatiness. I considered how it looked over white versus black, and black won hands down.

Print over white is ethereal

Print over black is vivid

 I considered getting silk charmeuse (satin) or silk crepe to underline. I looked at pictures of slips and chemises from the 1920s to the present. I rejected bias cut because of the stripe found in the snake print. I considered drafting something myself. I considered various kinds of darts.
Then it came to me. I had a sleeveless blouse pattern, that I'd used before, that would probably work with a woven.

Fabric is striped