Simple Blouse Week Day 4: Pintucks

There have been a few comments about a pattern, and it seems like enough interest I am going to make a pattern for this blouse.

I'm not giving a date as I hope it would be sooner than later, but our family has some big changes in the next months with selling our home, moving, and my husband starting a new job.

It would be ideal to get it done before I have to pack up my sewing room!

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Day 4: Pintucks!

This blouse is made with a thick chiffon-like fabric.

I bought it thinking it was chiffon and would need to be lined, but when I was cutting it out I realized it was thick enough to kill any lining and had the soft, flowy drape.

Sweet!

I wish I could remember what exactly its content is or where/ when I bought it.

So the variation on this blouse are the pintucks on the center front.

Pintucks are really easy to add.  When you cut the front piece on the fold, you just add however much extra you'd like pintucked.  I added 2" on the fold which required enough pintucks to pull in the blouse 4 inches total.

I sprayed the front piece with starch and ironed it in a few times to help make it stiff and minimize the drape/ shifting.

Next I drew the vertical lines starting with the center front and drawing them 1/2" apart.

You fold the fabric on a line and carefully sew (in this case) a 1/8" seam all the way down, then fold on the next chalked line, etc all the way across.  Each tuck takes a 1/4" out of the blouse.

Once the pintucks have brought the blouse back to the correct width, you finish the blouse the same as a regular one.

This one for some reason ended up too big, so I need to alter it for a better fit.

I love the lightweight fabric which is breezy and will be cool in the heat of summer, and the fact it was thick and opaque enough to eliminate a lining!