simplicity 4255: late summer sewing and laziness

would you want to sew when you could be looking at this?

image of Cooper Lake, NY from flickr user BurningQuestion

me, too!  which is why i packed my sewing machine with me earlier in august when i ran up to bearsville and woodstock in upstate new york.  mostly, i walked near the lake, shopped in the too-cute “downtown” woodstock, went hiking at kaaterskill falls, and sewed.  my sewing plans were pretty modest, just small projects to pass the time and have fun with, and i ended up concentrating a fair bit on this one (inspired by tilly and the buttons):

i loved the wide collar, dolman sleeve and wrap-around aspect of the blouse and decided to break up the cutesiness of the floral pattern by using a contrast fabric on the collar and tie.  i ultimately left the cuffs off, because too much is too much no matter how great the fabric is.  i have decidedly mixed feelings about the end result.

there are a few factors complicating my affection for this pattern.

• the bodice was much, much shorter than i had anticipated.
• the sleeves, even though i shortened them, are still weirder than i had anticipated.
• the ties wrap over the bodice in a sort of unusual way, not as seamlessly as i had anticipated.

BUT

• check out that collar!
• the facings went in perfectly!
• the collar went in perfectly!

and here’s where the laziness comes in.  this project was one of my labor day stragglers–a mostly-finished bit that was on the pile of bits to clean up over the long holiday weekend.  by now, i was tired of it.  finished it not up to my usual standards.  so even though the collar sewing looks like this:

the rest of the finishes look like this:

it’s like staring into the head of a gorgon, isn’t it?  *shudder*

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