Skirt and Vest

The skirt and vest have been finished. The vest was a very simple pattern with no darts and no back ties. I did not want to purchase any lining for the vest with all the cloth I have here, so I started looking through my cloth. I found just the thing, a burgundy which was left from backing a quilt. It matched the flowers in the blouse well, and though it did not match the vest cloth perfectly, it was fine for a lining and saved money to use it. The skirt was a gored skirt and I placed a bit of elastic in the back. I would have preferred the skirt about an inch longer and a little fuller, but I was trying to get a skirt, vest, and blouse out of the cloth and therefore had to compromise on the fullness of the skirt. I did get the blouse cut out, but have not made it yet. Lord willing, when the blouse and a western vest is made, they will be posted on my western blog. Ordinarily, I like cotton cloth. This cloth was some kind of rayon or polyester and rayon mix. It has one good advantage. It does not wrinkle near so badly. It will pack and travel much better than my cotton dresses. The picture of me wearing the dress is its true color. It matches almost perfectly with my Sunday dress boots.

Lovely blouse

Like the shoe cobbler’s children who never has shoes, it often seems the seamstress never has decent clothes, or the clothes comes from the thrift store. It has been long over due for me to make some clothes for myself. I found this lovely cotton cloth at Hancock’s and wanted to make something from it.

Despite is being ordinary cotton, it was an un-pretty price. Even though I waited until it was on a 50% off sale, it was still too expensive to make and entire dress as full and long as I like them. So, I decided to make a blouse and then make a skirt and vest to match from another cloth. The cloth was so dainty and feminine, I did not want a standard shirt collar. While looking through my patterns I found a pattern with a cute little collar. It was just the kind of blouse I wanted except for the sleeves. I had bought another pattern with three quarter length sleeves which were pleated into the cuff. I mixed the patterns, using the one with the lay-down collar and altered the sleeves to make them the three quarter pleated ones. I usually gather the sleeves into the cuffs. The pleats turned out pretty. I rarely make blouses, but am glad I did this one. I finished it this morning and it is so, so, just. . .I like it. :-)