Simplicity 8523 - Misses top

After the disaster with the McCalls M6844 I decided to try something simple. I also wanted to enter the beginners pattern contest and had less than a week to come up with an entry. This coupled with me working over the weekend made me choose this supposedly simple pattern for a blouse.

I choose a soft polyester from my stash, I think it was bought from Hancock fabrics. The fabric was a little thin and this was my first time sewing with polyester. The good part is that it does not unravel, the bad part is that it does not hold creases and was very hard to iron because I had to do it with low heat and lots of steam.


Now to the pattern - I choose size 14 and graded to size 16 at the hips. This was the first time I choose to measure the pattern. It has a lot of ease at the waist (11") but I did not have a lower size so 14 it had to be, knowing it was not going to look nice :(

Another first for me was to use the rotary cutter to cut my fabric. I saw this in the British sewing bee series and wanted to try. It was scary initially but I got better. I am never going back to scissors again. :)

The pattern went in smoothly in the beginning. Sew the dart - I referred to my craftsy class, sew the shoulder seam, and side seams. Then sew the facings, trim and notch.  This was too little instructions for me, so I went back to the Craftsy class Sassy librarian blouse and followed the facing instruction there.

Next came the set in sleeves. I stitched two rows of easing stitches and eased in the sleeve and stitched thinking that it was not bad. Then realized I had put the sleeves in the wrong way :(. So unpicked the stitches and put it back in again and this time it went in smoothly. I tried the blouse on it looked like a tent. It was very boxy and did not have any shape.


So I looked up some videos on waist shaping and using my curved ruler took the waist in on both sides. This is the final result. I think it is wearable.