Voile Blouse–Simplicity 2564

We got this Anna Maria Horner cotton voile fabric in at the store months ago and I’ve been coveting it ever since. There is another border print that I simply must buy soon for a summer skirt, but I digress. It has a beautiful silky finish to it and is just the right weight to be cool and light for summer or under jackets without being too sheer.

I decided on this pattern that had also been in the stash for a few months. I bought it because I have a blouse with a flounce in my closet that I like very much and I was also looking for a nice pencil skirt pattern.

I was a little hesitant on the blouse pattern because it has dolman sleeves and they can sometimes be either too loose and shapeless or make lifting your arms up difficult. This pattern is well drafted and I have neither of those problems. The only change I would possibly make is to lengthen the blouse so it could be tucked in and not come out when I do lift my arms. But I typically don’t tuck my blouses in so it isn’t an issue on this finished blouse.

I was lusting over some Liberty of London cotton lawns “on sale” yesterday (only $28.98/yd! as opposed to the usual price of $36.95/yd.) to make at least one more blouse out of this pattern. Now that I know it goes together nicely and fits well I am less hesitant to use really expensive fabric. But I rarely if ever spend that kind of money on a RTW blouse so I’ll have some justifying to do in the mean time.

For the time being I think I’m going to hit up some sales and look for a nice wool suiting to make a skirt or pair of slacks to go with this blouse. Perfection would be a perfectly matched grey with a pink pinstripe. But a dusky mauve pink would look good too.

I did do some minor fabric shopping last weekend while on a quick trip to Michigan with my daughter. I’ll post about that soon and include pictures. I also ordered two bolts of interfacing from Moda to try to find the perfect solution to my years of interfacing woes. That also deserves a post of its own. BTW, I don’t have any of my stock of interfacings and fusible fleece listed on my etsy shop (still on the too long to do list) but if you are looking for something in particular I may have it: fusible fleece, thermolam, SF101, fusible tricot, etc. Just drop me an email at beth (at) myeclecticmess (dot) com.