prairie blouse

Another piece from Seams to Me:

I thought I'd be all tricky and make the bias casing on the neck my way. Turned out to be a good example of why one should read the pattern all the way through before beginning. It seems just scanning the illustrations and thinking, "yeah, yeah, yeah", in my head isn't always enough. I was able to make it work just fine, but her way really would have been easier for this particular project.

If you hoard vintage bias tape, like I do, this is a great way to use it up. (The older Ellie gets, the fewer patterns I have that work with those one yard cuts of fabric I've been saving. Using bias to finish a hem is a good way to finish something that you might night have quite the length of fabric that you'd like. It eliminates the need to turn up the edge of the fabric twice for a standard sewn hem.) The running stitch was done with embroidery floss after the blouse was finished. The fabric is another Heather Ross print that I'd been saving for at least a year (maybe two) looking for something worthy of it.