Sassy Librarian Blouse #3 is finished! The chiffon was much harder to work with than the quilting cotton, and honestly, I think I prefer the look of the cotton versions with this pattern. At this point, I have made all possible versions of the Sassy Librarian Blouse by Christine Haynes. With this one, I did the pintucks and sleeveless features of version 2, but included a collar from view 1. I rounded the ends of the collar to make it Peter Pan like, but I neglected to add seam allowance to the center back. Since I had an empty gap between the collar back, I added a little box pleat for interest.
As this was my first time making the sleeveless version, I was rather intrigued by the method of binding the armholes BEFORE closing the side seam. As directed, I sewed the binding to the right side from side seam to side seam. Then you sew up the side seam, including the binding, and have something like this.
I had actually skipped my steps around before this part, to complete the center front buttons before the armholes. Then, when I reached this point, I was able to test fit the blouse and had to take the bust in by 1/4″ and let the waist out by 1/4″. If I hadn’t done the buttons first, I would have had to take the armhole apart to make the adjustments, later.
Once everything fit well, the rest of the binding was pretty typical, fold your seam allowance, line it up with your seam line and stitch in the ditch. I topstitched two lines of decorative stitching along the armband, to mimic the center front.
Speaking of center front, it’s time to confess: the cute double rows of stitching on the pintuck were an accident. I made the initial tucks too narrow which made the blouse front too wide. I made a decision to stitch a second line of black stitches, rather than unpick the first line, and fortunately, it looks cute instead of like a mistake.
I used the same sheer silky material from the collar, backed with fusible interfacing, and made covered buttons, centering the diamond as best I could. The off center button was used at the bottom where it will be hidden by a waistband.
Once I finished sewing, it went into the washer and dryer to remove the washable marker lines, then I quickly wrapped a turban around my hair for the sake of pictures and here we have it! The finished Sassy Librarian Blouse #3!
What do you think? Were the diamond buttons a good choice or are they tacky?