A plain vanilla blouse

I've been doing a lot of thinking about the gaps in my wardrobe lately, especially after Tasha's and Rochelle's excellent posts recently.  I'm still considering my "uniform"--I mostly gravitate toward a button down blouse and a-line skirt with a cardigan, but I've also added a few other pieces to my wardrobe this fall that needed something to make them workable.  I love a good novelty print blouse, but I realized I needed a) a good long sleeve blouse that wasn't "silky" and b) a solid color.  

Exhibit A: my new (white!) long-sleeve blouse!  I made it using a modern pattern but took a page from Rochelle at Lucky Lucille and used the sleeves from the Decades of Style New England dress pattern.  Worked a charm!

It was my first go at long sleeves, so I was a bit nervous about the construction.  The sleeves are darted at the cap and gathered at the cuff.  I did not understand the instructions for making the slash opening at the cuff, so I just finished the sleeve seam on the edges a few inches instead.  It works.  I used white cotton lawn from fabric.com, which is lovely, but very thin.  I probably should have ordered double and used a double thickness throughout, but on the other hand, I wanted this blouse as a layering piece, and the day I wore this it was VERY cold, and I was toasty warm.  Something about having the arms covered, I think.

  

The vest is vintage (late 50s/ early 60s, maybe) and had to spend a week in the freezer in a ziploc bag.  I bought it on ebay and the seller did not disclose that it came from a smoking home.  I had it dry cleaned, which helped, but the freezer trick really got all the lingering smell out.  The neat thing is that there is a small line of green yarn just below the red and it exactly matches my green skirt!  I've gotten so much wear out of this skirt this fall and early winter.  I'd like to make another one in a winter weight fabric, now that I think I'm getting the hang of the pattern.  I still need to work out the waist-hip ratio since the skirt keeps coming up big in the waist, but I got a good tip from a fellow sewer and I think I know how to adjust the pattern next time.  I've got a pile of swatches on my sewing box, so we'll see what I have time for next!