Yarn Along: Gauntlets

For those of us who blog our sewing, I think that failures can be just as instructive as the wins (sometimes more so!)  So I present: two failures.

First is a blouse that never even got far enough to model.  I was trying to use my lute scrap fabric to make cuffs on a 3/4 sleeve blouse that I've made before, but I made a fitting error at the shoulders, and in trying to fix it, made a complete mosh of it.  I also realized, after fighting with the fabric for an hour or two, that I had absolutely no interest in wearing this fabric next to my skin.  I really like Art Gallery's prints, but I'm a little less impressed with their Pure Elements line of solid colors.  I'm really struggling to find a line of woven cotton solids that presses well, feels good against the skin, has a range of colors, and has a nice drape to it without being tissue thin.  Art Gallery's stuff is pretty close to poplin, which is great for a super tailored look, but it wasn't really what I was going for.  The Pure Elements line also does not press well after laundering, so I don't love that about it either.  (For the record, I don't really throw my failures in the trash can; I have two friends who take my unusable-to-me fabric scraps for quilting and other fabric crafts)

In progress: fighting with the neckband

Moving on.  Next up is this blouse, made with Butterick's 5557 pattern reissue of a 1955 original.  The pattern art would suggest an extremely fitted silhouette, but I forgot that reissues frequently add in 5-10 inches of ease that wasn't in the original draft.  Butterick is also kind of bad about providing finished garment measurements, so I cut my usual vintage size (20) and hoped for the best, but this blouse turned out at least two sizes too big.  There are some drafting issues with the neck facing pieces (they don't fit at the corners!) and I had to recut the pieces longer.  I also fought a lot to attach the neckline binding, and the finish isn't very precise and my mitered corners are pretty much a disaster.



I'm still trying to decide if it is wearable or not--I pinched out a ton of excess at the neckline (2 1/2 inches at the back and about 1 1/2 inches at the front), but there is still a ton of excess fabric under the arms, and the neckline pulls oddly.   And, as much as I love kimono sleeves, the longer dolman sleeve version don't do me any favors, I think.  I really need to find a 3/4 length raglan sleeve that suits me, as I think that would fix my shoulder fitting issues and my upper arm fitting issues in one fell swoop.  I'm hoping that Collette's new Dahlia pattern will provide a raglan bodice block for me.

I really like the contrast fabric with this shamrock green cotton (from Cotton + Steel, which is currently in the running for a good cotton solid), but I don't love this blouse.   The contrast was a small scrap from my gram's stash, and I could make another blouse with the binding, I think.  I might deconstruct it and try to cut something else out of it.

But, I did make some gauntlets this week!  I used most of a skein of left over yarn from the Katniss cowl and made some chunky eyelet gauntlets.

I like the style, but I think I would prefer a less bulky version--I really like the mallard blue ones that Claire wears in quite a few Outlander scenes, and they look to me more like fingering or sport weight.

As for reading, I dipped back into Voyager, and I'm still poking away at Albion's Seed.  Also, because I'm a historian and a geek, I started researching 18th century clothing construction, and found two websites that proved particularly helpful.  I'm interested to try a few of the techniques.

 Joining Ginny for Yarn Along.