It's long sleeve blouse progress & jeans, too.

Work, work, working on the blouse.

I overlocked all the pieces until my serger quit on me. For good this time.

Crap.

I had to finish the rest of the pieces with a ziz-zag stitch.

This being the first time I've made this pattern, my adjustments were not the greatest.

I added a bit too much to the gathered bust and I plan on cutting that area down by 2" on the next go round. Also, because my shoulders are more narrow than the pattern, I had to cut down the front yoke by a good 1 1/2". I was worried that was too much, but the blouse hangs great.

Whew.

Even with the snafus in the altering of the pattern, I can't stress enough the benefit of slopers. It's like I can alter a pattern with my eyes closed. No thinking involved! Fantastic!

As I was finishing up the rest of the blouse for the day, I decided to go on and start my second pair of jeans.

I have a black pair of denim jeans I made that I've worn for years. They are my rough and tumbles, and I need to replace them. I have this great blue denim in my stash and it took only about 30 minutes to cut out the pieces.

I'm changing up the pattern a bit (I'm using the slacks from my 40s slacks repro), and I'm adding a yoke to the back.

I cut the pattern past the darts, closed the darts, then redrafted the yoke piece. I think it's going to work out splendidly!

This is the perfect project to do since I don't have a serger right now.

AW MAN I MISS IT ALREADY!!!