Here a cowl, there a cowl

Part 1: Vogue 8034

I'm intrigued with cowl neck tops lately and wanted to try out some patterns that I've accumulated. The first is an OOP Vogue 8034. 

I had a beautiful silk charmeuse print from Watchter's Fabrics in Asheville, a scant 1 yard of 54 inch-wide fabric, that I purchased the last time I was there. It was all that was left on the bolt, and Joyce, the owner, suggested I make a scarf or perhaps a simple cami top from it. But visions of cowl neck blouses danced in my head, through my pattern collection, across my sewing machine and onto my dressform. Here it is:

The blouse looks a little caterwumpus at the bustline, but trust me, it hangs nice and straight on me. I probably should have straightened the cowl a bit before snapping the photos. Oh well, it's late and I've had a glass of wine. Wine brings out my "it's good enough" attitude. :)

The skirt is a silk knit self-drafted pattern that I made a long while ago. 

Pattern: Vogue 8034 View A (the blue sleeveless one)

  Since silk charmeuse is a fine and slippery fabric, I knew it would be a perfect place to use my favorite sleeveless armhole narrow hem treatment which I talked about here and used again here. 

It's from Issue 145 of Threads magazine (November 2009) in which Susan Crane wrote an article about using a very narrow bias binding method on armholes for fine fabrics such as chiffon, silk, and lightweight cotton. The purpose is to provide a neat edge without the bulk-adding facings and also without the seam-weakening clips into the seam allowance.

Essentially, the method has you cut a 2 inch wide strip of bias and press a curve into it. Then you sew it to the armhole. You trim the seam allowance to 1/8 inch (!) and wrap the bias strip around that seam allowance and stitch close to the seamline, thereby stitching the tiny seam allowance to the bias wrap. Next you trim the excess bias strip away, turn the tiny enclosed seam allowance, and topstitch from the right side of the armhole.

Here are some photos of that narrow hem:

Blouse exterior:

Blouse interior:

Before I eked the grey and green print blouse out of my scanty piece of silk charmeuse, I tried the pattern out on a piece of silk animal print fabric from my stash. It made up into a very nice wearable muslin, so I was pleased.

 I used the same narrow hem armhole treatment on it as well. 

Here it is:

 The skirt is an asymmetric-hem pattern, Vogue 2029 (OOP) in a black microfiber fabric that I made back in the day.

Both tops made up very quickly, with hand-picked side seam zippers. They were a break from some intense sewing I've been doing, to clear my head a bit while I awaited the delivery of my fabric for that intense project.