FINISHED! Gerties L'Estrange Sailor's blouse

When I visited Tessuti* a couple of months ago I knew immediately that this fabric would become a Gertie Sailor's blouse. I have been enamoured with this blouse ever since seeing the post on Paunnet of her version of this blouse and Gertie's Creative Bug workshop and was just looking for the right fabric. I think this fabric has the right amount of a nautical feel without being too obvious. The fabric, is Liberty of London L'Estrange and is from the Autumn Winter 2012 Printing and Dyeing Story. 

The Fabric Story from Liberty of London:  A unique floral check design representing straightness of fit. The Printing and Dyeing story was created to promote to customers the amazing printing skills and techniques that go into a rotary or screen printed Liberty Art Fabric and each design portrays a different printing hurdle. The Liberty Design Studio visited ‘Standfast and Barracks’ a British furnishing and apparel printer with a heritage stretching back 80 years which offers a wide range of specialist printing techniques and dye shades. The Liberty Art Fabrics team worked with the studio at Standfast to develop new looks and techniques when printing.

Now onto the blouse and the workshop.  I've spoken before about my frustration with the pdf that comes with this course.  I suppose it is possible to paste the pattern together but it is not straight forward and I definitely expect a bit more from a print at home pattern.  I couldn't find the sizing chart either.  I hope that Creative Bug take on the comments I sent as they have some really great courses. (Update 11 September - the PDF has now been fixed - thanks Creative Bug!!) For those of you who have done Craftsy courses, you might miss, as I did, the interaction that you can have with the teacher and the ability to ask questions and provide feedback. 

In the end, because I really wanted to make the blouse,I just bought Gertie's book as the pattern is a variation of her Portrait Blouse.  I will definitely be making the non variation version in the future!  The fit is so flattering! In the end, it wasn't such a bad thing to finally buy her book.  I'm sure I'll make something else out of it and there is a lot of good information in it. 

In terms of making it, I really enjoyed watching and listening to Gertie. She has a lovely lovely manner and voice.   I did miss having instructions to follow, as I found I kept missing points because I was doing and watching.  Note to self - watch the episode through once without doing anything first!

Drafting the collar seemed so straightforward, but in the end, I think I botched mine up.  It doesn't sit flat and yesterday I was really worried that it looked ridiculous.  I'm less worried today but it isn't exactly right.  The other thing is that I didn't make a muslin (I know I know) so the back of the collar is just a bit big which I would have picked up if I'd done a muslin.  I used the measurements of Gertie's but given I made up a size 4 and I'm pretty short, I could have trimmed it in a centimetre or so on each side.  C'est la vie. 

The v at the front also isn't superb and I don't think I finised my binding off there properly. Fortunately the  bow adds a lovely bit of visual interest to that area and disguises the dodgey bit.

I don't normally wear such short blouses with jeans, but it works ok, but I can really see myself wearing this in summer with some short and already it's lined up for work tomorrow with my pencil skirt!  It really feels like Spring at the moment and wearing a short sleeve shirt like this was absolutely weather appropriate today. (Need a cold snap desperately though as we are going skiing next weekend - I'm hoping the snow holds!)

So despite some issues, I do recommend this workshop, particularly if you already have Gertie's book for the pattern.. I loved learning the triple stitch hem and doing my first lapped zipper.  

Finally, after a hilarious post on taking photos of her lovely Miss Chalmers skirt and then a follow up, thought provoking post by Thewallina on taking selfies and being a bit creative with our photo taking (and smiling!), I left my driveway for an 'on location' shoot today down at the Canberra Yacht Club.  It's not perfect as I was super self conscious as I was surrounded by families celebrating Father's day but I did it.  It was my first time using a remote and I can thoroughly recommend it... what a difference it makes to taking a selfie!

* I have now made up outfits using all 4 pieces bought from Tessuti - might be time for another visit :)