Finished: Sewaholic Belcarra Blouse and Green Eyelet Lace Midi Skirt

I have been so productive.  I completed my Vogue 8750 Midi Skirt in bright green eyelet lace.  I also made up a Sewaholic Belcarra blouse. No head shots as I am evidently also on vacation from hair and makeup!

I was fortunate enough to be a tester for this blouse pattern.  I still haven’t taken photos of my test blouse.  I didn’t make the best fabric choice.  It was too gauzy, not crisp enough. Also stitching that test blouse is what finally convinced me that I needed a new sewing machine.  This blouse neckline is finished with a bias strip and edgestitching.  My old machine’s poor tension just didn’t finish it nicely enough.  Getting to stitch this up again has convinced me of the simple beauty of this blouse.

The fabric is the broadcloth that I used to underline my green eyelet lace skirt.  After seeing Tasia’s suggestions post (sorry, can’t add a link easily on my iPad) I decided to add lace on the sleeves.  It is the same lace that I used for my English Rose tunic.

Vogue 8750 is a great skirt pattern.  Various options for length and option of flared panels or fitted.  I went with the longest length with the flared side panels.  What I love about this is the straight front and back panels.  You don’t have the bulk of a full skirt at your waist but you get the joy of a full skirt at the hem.  I forgot to take photos of the back.

The waist is finished with grosgrain ribbon stitched on the outside and then turned into the inside and stitched.  My Fabricland had a poor selection of ribbon, or maybe I just couldn’t find it, so I settled for this tulip ribbon.  This is the same ribbon used as a waist-stay on my feather digital print dress.

Here is a shot of the panels.  You can also see how I added the scalloped border of the fabric to the curved hem of the side panels. I obviously couldn’t cut the curved hem on the edge of the fabric. I think it blends in well with the front panel which was cut with the hem on the border. I didn’t have enough fabric width for the full panels. They were supposed to be even fuller! I folded the pattern pieces and took out about a one inch slice from each pie slice shaped pattern piece. Maybe more like 2 inches.

What do you think of the midi skirt length? Have you sewn the Belcarra blouse yet? Will you?