It's like you're an Executive Secretary or Something

Today I'm not sure if I'm a 50-ish secretary or a fancy school teacher. "Ahem. Your attention class. This afternoon we will be learning about the native habit of the Monkey Frog, tireless helper in the sewing room.  Make sure you have your fabric prepared and don't leave any cookies unattended."

I put a white blouse in the Fall Essentials sewing list because it's one of those things everyone needs but isn't all that exciting to sew.  If someone comes up to you and says, "Oh my god, I'm just frothing at the mouth about sewing a white button down shirt," then back away slowly cause they have rabies. Maybe throw some hand sanitizer on them for good measure.

That being said I was excited to try out the new pattern to me pattern V-8747.  It's got a few design details to spice up the shirt without getting Tilton sister crazy.  No offense to the Tilton sisters, they're way more avant garde then I'll ever be.  So without further ado, here's my version of V-8747 both tucked and untucked.

(Side note - I've paired V-8747 with a wool Betsy skirt that was made way back in the middle of the summer. You're seeing it for the first time cause who wants to wear wool in 80-90 degree weather.)

I used some lovely cotton shirting from the now closed Waechters. It has a woven in strip pattern that seems impossible to photograph. You'll just have to take my word that it's tasteful and makes cutting things on grain really easy.

Since I've no stranger to shirt sewing and was using non temperamental fabric, this blouse went together with very little angst. The only problems I had were self created stupid mistakes....several stupid mistakes. In the interest of keeping it real, here are some of the stupid things I did while making this blouse.
- Fused interfacing to every collar, cuffs, button bands piece there was.
- Cut the tips off of my collar when trying to grade down the seam allowances. Had to recut a new collar.
- Put button holes on the wrong side of one of the cuffs. Didn't even notice this while I was sewing on the buttons. It wasn't until I pressed the shirt that the mistake was finally noticed.

Thank god for extra fabric to fix dumb mistakes! Or maybe I made stupid mistakes cause there was extra fabric? Or maybe I shouldn't sew while my Quality Assurance Frog is taking a nap.  Ahhh my head!

Pattern
Vogue 8747 - View D

Fabrics used
Blouse weight cotton from Waechters. (Stashed)

Pattern changes/alterations
- 1/2" Sway back adjustment.
- 1/2" Forward shoulder adjust to bodice and sleeve.
- Shaved down the front of the sleeve cap about 1/8" to get the sleeve to fit without puckers.

Confessions/Advice
- I'd strongly suggest cutting down the neckline seam allowance to at least 3/8". The 5/8" seam allowance given is too large to sew the front curves without lots of clipping.

- The bust point must be low on this pattern because I didn't need to make any changes to the gather location. Those of you with higher bust points might need to raise this area.

- On a button down with higher buttons the shoulders would be perfect.  However since the neckline pulls open more I find the shoulder area looks too wide. Might narrow it a bit in the future.

- I could take a bit of ease out of the side seams on any future versions.

-  I did replace the cuff with the buttonholes on the wrong side. At least all that needed to be ripped out was the seam attaching it to the sleeve.

Husband Comment
"Wait....did you make that? Really?  I like these gathered things on the front. Makes it look like your chest is trying to rip open the shirt."

My Final Thoughts
This pattern is a nice twist on the traditional button down shirt. With the princess line seams and bust gathers you get a feminine look that is still work appropriate. Think I erred on the side of too much ease with this version, but that's easily fixable.

The fact that my husband didn't believe this was a hand made shirt did make my day. Let's not tell him about all those sewing mistakes....oh wait he reads the blog. I'll have to use the Jedi mind trick on him now. "These are not the blog post you were looking for. Move along."