Blouse Evaluation

Finished Blouse Front

Finished Blouse Back

I am very proud of my blouse upon its completion. I naively thought that this would be one of the easier garments to make for the National. However I encountered many challenges to overcome throughout, from simple mistakes to testing out a new process. Probably my biggest mistake was made in the very beginning when I was cutting out the pattern, and that was cutting two of the same sleeves. I must not have flipped my pattern the second time which is a peril when cutting out with just one layer of fabric. I was lucky enough to have enough fabric to cut out a third sleeve and all that was lost was time. This mistake will make me more aware the next time I cut out on just one layer of fabric. I think it will also help me be more aware of marking the right and wrong side of the fabric. In the case of this blouse the black fabric I was using was similar on both sides; maybe that contributed to the mistake as well. Another challenge I encountered was making the slit at the wrist of the sleeve. It was a relatively new process and it took me some time to really do it correctly, but that something that I can now feel more confident in doing again. One thing I did feel was a success was the pin-tucks on the front. Using chalk that didn’t leave marks after ironing was a good solution to working on black fabric when the garment wasn’t going to be lined. I really wanted to make sure the blouse looked as clean on the inside as it did on the outside. Using lots of tacking was also key to keeping things tidy, I discovered that it took a lot less time to mark tack something than to try and remove chalk lines. I am very happy with the quality of this shirt as well as the amount of time it took me to make it. I started on Thursday April 28^th, when I was originally scheduled to start the male shirt. I finished the blouse on Monday May 9^th so a little over a week like originally planned. I did utilize the weekends but tried to keep that at a minimum. I feel that in a professional work-room if I was given a similar blouse I would be confident in making it.