Happy Independence Day! - Vogue 1247

The Fourth of July is coming!!

I hope everyone (in the States) has a wonderful Independence Day!
I will be enjoying plenty of cookout food and illegal fireworks!
sike sike lol maybe lol

And this is what I'll be sporting for the festivities...

This is Vogue 1247
I know it looks a little different lol

I cut a size 12
I got both the blue and white fabric from Hancock's and I got the red piping on sale at G Street.
The fabrics are matte jersey polyesters.

I just want to start by saying I. LOVE. THIS. SHIRT.
I will be making more!
Different colors, different fabrics and different trims!

This pattern is so versatile to me.
I originally was going to use red fabric as well, either as the middle triangles or the bottom ones but because I didn't feel like washing it at the time, I decided on piping instead.
WAY BETTER IDEA.

I think the piping gives this blouse a "sporty" feel.
Something like Tommy Hilfiger lol
And this was my first time doing piping!
It was actually really easy.
I guess I was just nervous to try it

Because this top instructs to use french seams, that adds up to TWO new skills learned!
The instructions on the pattern say to first sew a 3/8" seam allowance with wrong sides together, then trim and sew 1/4" with right sides together.
I decided to do it the other way around. Mostly because of the piping.

The piping was 1/2" wide so I sewed a 1/4" seam allowance (once again my 1/4" plays a large role),
stitched the piping to the seam allowance with my edge-stitching foot (<3),

then put right sides together and stitched as close as possible to the piping with my adjustable zipper foot.

Another foot that has been an amazing investment!
I figured, sewing an extra 1/8" to the seam allowance wouldn't make a difference with the amount of ease in this blouse.

Because the fabrics I used are knits, the fabric around the piping on the center back seam hangs down.

can't tell in this pic because of the light

I don't completely hate it, but I think that it could be avoided by using some kind of woven.

I did ALOT of thread switching during the make up of this blouse especially around the neck area with the facing and the side seams.
White thread on the spool, blue in the bobbin, and vice versa.
Unfortunately I completely ran out of blue thread while rewinding the bobbin. -_-


Because the back and front of the sleeves are different colors, I did not want to add a solid color cuff because I thought it would look a bit tacky, so I just hemmed it 1", using the remaining of the blue bobbin on the outside to keep the colors coordinated.

I finally found a method to help me get pleats done quicker... and nicer lol
I think these are my best pleats yet! ^_^
It's kind of hard to explain so I'll have to figure out a way to and get back to you :-)
But honestly, I'm not completely sure if those stitching lines are actually supposed to be there.
Experienced sewists, chime in please??

Either way, I'm so happy that they match up.

I'm happy about how all of the lines match up!!

And I like the way french seams look soo much that I'll probably use them on most of my future garments.

The only thing that I'm not too proud of about this top is the hem lol
I was rushing to go somewhere and black thread was on the serger..... i don't know what else to say lol

If I would have folded it twice it wouldn't even be noticeable but I didn't. all of the seams had been pretty  bulky (i'm guessing because of the fabric choice) and I didn't want the hem to be that way.
That's also why I serged and hemmed the top flat and THEN did french seams on the side seams to finish.

Oh! And these are also the best darts i've sewn lol
What I did differently was that I used a smaller stitch length at the beginning, went back to 2.5 for the middle and switch back to a smaller length at the tip.

MUCH BETTER METHOD.
I still need work on them but I'm definitely making progress.
I think next time I will pin the darts vertically instead of horizontally to give me better accuracy.

That was a LOT uh splainin' lol
and another project down for #SummerStashBust14!

What do you think about it??
Do  you know more about the pleat situation??
What are you doing for the Fourth?
Chime in!

Thanks for reading!

xoxo, Tasha