Josephine for Mom

My mom loved the last Made by Rae Josephine blouse I made her a lot, so I made her another...

Josephine in Lawn

Here's a Made by Rae Josephine blouse I made for my Mom. I've made Josephine for myself several times in the past. I love the pleats (pintucks?) and the wide (but not too wide) neckline and thought my mom would like it, too.

Japanese Josephine

Since I have already given you sneak preview of my latest project in my last post, I might as well tell the full story!

After my successful wearable muslin of Made by Rae's Josephine blouse, I quickly cut out and sewed up another one, switching out the sleeves for a slightly less poofy look.

I used some cool Japanese fabric I bought in Bangkok's Chinatown (that's a mouthful of international-ness, eh?).  The selvage is labeled "kimono chintz poplin. made in Japan" and it's deep red with a really light grey... the design is stylized mountains (or maybe clouds), but occasionally when I look at it too hard, I see a certain part of the male anatomy.  This is particularly funny because when I Googled "kimono chintz poplin" to see if I could find the name of the company that manufactured the fabric, the first hit was another sewist bemoaning the fact that she saw "hot steaming piles of crap" in her kimono chintz poplin and that she couldn't unsee them. Ha! I am trying my hardest not to see the man parts in my fabric because I love the shirt.

I switched out the sleeves that came with the pattern in favor of the narrower 3/4ths sleeves from the Painted Portrait pattern.  I think they work ok... still a good deal of poof at the shoulders, but less fabric around the lower part of the arms.  A better style for me as well as a fabric saver, so win-win.  I probably could have just shortened and narrowed the Josephine sleeves, but laziness set in.

I made the same construction changes I made for my first Josephine (besides the sleeves, of course), which is to say not many: skipped elastic and bound the neckline earlier in the process.

Here's me GIFed again, because one can never have enough GIFs of oneself floating around the interwebs:

Josephine Blouse: A Wearable Muslin

I didn't jump on Made by Rae's Josephine pattern when it first came out, but for some reason this past Sunday I couldn't get it out of my head. Later that afternoon: an impulse purchase, a download, some printing, cutting and taping, a quick sew and ta-da! 

A wearable muslin Josephine blouse by evening's end.

I used some polka dot mystery fabric that Martha gave me (you might remember it from this Maggie Mae top or the lining of the plaid patchwork dress I made Zoe).  I think it's vintage stuff from her stash.  It's quite sheer (hence the camisole in these pics), very soft, and if you turn the iron on too hot it melts a little.  As such, it doesn't press very well and my pleats are not as crisp as they could be, but the shirt is really comfy to wear. 

I am really digging this pattern... it's super simple and quick to put together, but the pleats make it look really polished and professional.  It would go well with a pencil skirt or cigarette pants for work, but it could also be worn with jeans.  I can imagine it in lots of fabrics... I've got a pretty piece of batik silk from Indonesia that has Josephine written all over it!  I think perhaps next time I might go with sleeves that are slightly less... um... pirate-y. Maybe the straight 3/4th length sleeves from the Painted Portrait tunic?  

My methodology consisted of following the directions for view B with the exception of a few areas:

• I staystitched and sewed the binding on the neckline immediately after sewing the pleats and attaching the shoulders together (before sewing on the sleeves) because I didn't want the neckline to get distorted.  Also, I sewed the binding on the inside like a facing rather than have it show since I was using store-bought bias binding.
•  I basted together the side seams and tried it on without the back elastic to see if I wanted to add that feature or not...  I wasn't sure it would look good with the sheer fabric and I didn't feel it needed more shaping, so I omitted it for this version. 

As an aside, the slightly pink hue in all my photos is due to this pretty sunset in the other direction: