Butterick 5817 - Blue silk top

I think I might be the last Mood Sewing Network blogger to make a garment out of their great Thakoon designer fabrics. Seriously. But, I'd seen a picture of what the designer used this fabric for, and I couldn't get it out of my mind. That blue solid border wanted to be at the top of a long sleeve blouse, so of course I had to wait for some cooler weather to use it.

This fabric is a silk crepe de chine from Mood Fabrics, which has a neat border print that doesn't show up in their photos. I used silk crepe de chine last month to line my aqua brocade dress, and I'm getting less and less afraid of sewing with it.

Since this fabric is pretty busy, I wanted to use a simple pattern. Finding a slightly fitted simple long sleeve blouse wasn't easy! After combing through all my patterns and Burda magazines, I went looking through patterns online. This is Butterick 5817, and I had to look at the line drawing to figure out exactly what it was doing. I liked the long darts and slightly shaped center back seam. I could not even think of trying to put a zipper in this thin fabric, so the small slit at the neckline really appealed.

I used a fabric covered button at the back, and interfaced the fabric before making it into a button. Experience has shown these thin fabrics will show the sheen of the metal without interfacing. I made a thread loop to hook around the button. This pattern has cuffs at the end of the long sleeves, which I did cut out. The sleeves turned out to be the perfect length without the cuffs, and I decided I liked it with just a small 5/8" hem. The neckline was finished with a strip of bias binding. I had to use the print of the fabric here since the blue wasn't wide enough to fit the entire binding in.

I've been seeing lots of silk blouses on the runways lately, and I wanted one too. Goodness knows you can't find silk anything in mid-priced department stores anymore. I hope to make another silk blouse soon, perhaps with buttons down the front and a collar.