SWAP item #6 - Not your usual white shirt

Not your usual white shirt - Burda WOF 01/2008, blouse 108



Untucked (I prefer it tucked in)



Blouse lying flat



I had another shirt in mind for this fabric but Christina's blouse (which I liked very much) and a blouse worn in Dirt 113 - Ite missa est by Laura Allen (cream silk with black piping) "fermented" in my brain and led to the present entry.

The fabric is white silk (I don't know what kind of silk, but here's a close-up of the fabric):



I did a petite alteration to this blouse. If you speak or understand German, here's a link to a pdf file explaining petite alterations on the Burdafashion website. Actually even if you don't speak German (I don't) I think the drawing speak for themselves. Also, here's a link to a thesis for a master degree. It is titled "Petite women: fit and body shape analysis" and it provides a lot of details concerning petite alteration. It's a very interesting paper, if you have the time for it.

I decided to use French seams for this blouse - I like this type of clean finish plus my silk is a tiny bit sheer.





The armhole seams are finished with satin bias binding. The same satin bias was used to finish the hem.



I've used Dawn's tip for perfect darts (I've been using it all the time since she posted it) - so logical and clever to position your fabric to have a straight line from the needle, to the dart tip, to your nose!

And I've used Sigrid's tutorial for the collar with stand. Great tutorial, the result was a very nice collar.



I wanted clean lines of piping and didn't want any topstitching (either white or black) near my piping, therefore the sleeve cuffs and the button stands are finished by hand on the inside, with the tiniest slipstitch possible and silk thread.



Close-up of piping



To add piping to the button stand, I cut two separate pieces for each stand instead of cutting the stand on fold. I've also made oblique buttonholes.

I've used black satin piping (store-bought) and for the buttons and tie, a piece of polkadotted satin that I used for pipings and bindings (see my toreador pants)

This was a time-consuming project, considering the French seams and the hand finishings. But the most time-consuming and annoying task was to cover the buttons in satin. The buttons were metal and the satin was sooooo slippery (starching didn't help too much). It was a pain to center the white dot on the buttons. I used temporary adhesive spray and it helped a bit.



I didn't care for the bow at the neck (showed in the Burda magazine) so I'd rather wear my tie straight, without any bow. However, a word of warning for those wanting the bow: my tie is already 7 cm longer than the Burda tie and it would still be a bit too short for a bow. So if you want a bow, you should add about 10-15 cm to the tie.