Grrrr, Wild Animal in a Blouse in La Paz

Its mid May 2014. I am on a mission:

 To create a comfortable, stylish and functional summer wardrobe that will serve for business and casual wear.

Yesterday I competed blouse number five in my bevy of blouses. This is  another version of the Lekala princess seamed button up blouse pattern number 5114.

This is a nice, basic fitted blouse that offers lots of opportunity for adding details like piping and color blocking.
I love animal prints, I love black and white, and I love this blouse. I have been saying that a lot about the  recent garments I have sewn. Isn’t that the way it should be?
If one spends the time and money to choose a pattern, fabric and all of the notions, shouldn’t one be pleased with the result? This one says hell yes!

As perfectly as the Lekala pattern pieces fit together. And as perfectly as the finished garment fits, this particular project has not been without it’s  travails.

The fabric was on a table marked “American Cotton”. It has a nice hand, is tightly woven and posseses a wonderful soft, sheen.
Something tingled at the back of my brain making me feel that perhaps this lovely print was not  the fabric  it claimed to be.
 I washed and dried it. Nary a wrinkle in sight.
 I did the burn test, it burned and MELTED. A sure sign of a synthetic fiber.
But it is light, does not need ironing and besides I love it.  So I teamed it up with some lovely, soft black linen and red piping. Looks-wise, it  is a match made in heaven. Sewing wise, not so much.
When I drive, I drive fast, I like my coffee H-O-T. When I cook, I use high heat. When I iron all but the most delicate fabrics I use the linen/cotton  setting.
 I did test the fabric and decided it would be best to dial back the iron to the wool setting. I pressed and fused away without an issue. Then I pressed the linen pieces on the linen setting of course.

Then it was time to press the collar, which by the way, turned out perfectly with sharp points. I picked up the iron, lowered it and began to slide it…well no slidey the iron. It  stuck fast and melted my beautiful collar!

” Oh  S#$T!”, I shouted, and many more lovely blue words that are satisfying,  even if they are not productive. I gave myself time to yell and sulk and call myself stupid and decided to soldier on and cut another collar.
 I turned off the iron so it would cool down. I should have taken a dip in the pool and  given myself time to cool down.
 I cut another  collar, fused it, stitched it, turned it and realized that I  had sewn it WRONG SIDES TOGETHER. “Oh Noooo, not again you dumb $%^&!” I screamed.
 This time I dived in the pool, paddled around, dried off in the sun. Came back, made a perfect collar, and attached it perfectly!
 Now its sleeve time. Look how cute these lseeves are:

Don’t you love the bright red piping? The black linen tab? And the cute buttons that mimic the piping? Remember that I said the black and white was tightly woven? And the side panels are linen? Well linen has some natural ease, the animal print does not.  The sleeve cape just would not play nicely with the linen part of the armscye. And to make matters worse one armscye was an INCH shorter than the sleeve. Don’t ask ME, I have no idea how that happened.  Well, three insertions of a tiny gusset later, I had an almost perect sleeve insertion.
 I gave up on having a perfectly flat sleeve head. But it looks good, yes?
 The blouse went together fairly well with the exception of the sleeves. I was a little concerned about how the buttonholes would work. 

I used the good side of the melted collar as my test piece, and made  six perfect buttonholes. Oh I know you, dear reader, you are waiting to hear about the next disaster. Well nanner, nanner, nanner, there was no disaster. the buttonhole attachment on my “new” old Singer 301 performed perfectly.
 So take a look at me in my lovley new blouse.
My Beloved and I were on our way out to supper and he is my patient photographer.  This is a new mural near a new beer restaurant, so I chose this locale as for my photo shoot:

I do not have a clue why these photos are so blurry. I shall try to correct this.
 Here are close ups of  the buttons, and my accessories:

And here is a photo of my sewing room after a major clean up!: