Progress on the blouse.

I've been steadily working on my rayon blouse. Since I don't have my serger, *sniff *sniff*, I over cast the edges of the fabric with a ziz-zag stitch.

I had to piece some parts that don't show. The inside facing of the front blouse I had to piece in order to make the most out of the fabric.

As I was looking for fabric to use as facing on specific pieces, I grabbed some cheap old cotton/polly from my stash. That would be good enough, I thought. Then I realized, this is vintage fabric, it deserves a better grade of facing than this.

I looked in my stash and pulled out some vintage feedsacks.

Perfect.

The cotton of the feedsacks is a fairly loose broken in weave and will give a soft stiffening, a perfect compliment to the rayon. To finish the edges, I first did a basting stitch then overcast the edges. I didn't back stitch but just knotted the tails like you would of had to do with an old machine. When I tried to back stitch because the fabric is so thin, it would get caught in the feed dogs.

Lame!

I love the look, it's clean and very secure. On the plus this was a great use of all my half filled bobbins. Got through them pretty fast. This process did take longer, and I stopped for an hour twice to let my machine have a brake but I do feel the craftsmanship in doing this. I still miss my serger, though.

I've finished up all the pieces and plan on starting construction today.

More to come!