Repeats and Redesigns

Some projects just wanna' give you grief from the beginning.  I hope this will not be one of those.  Last summer, I found this fabric on the grab table at a sewing meeting.  It's a brushed cotton, but it is so lush it looks like velveteen.  Drapable.  It's a very dark olive green/black print on a white background.

It's a large print, large repeat.   I decided to make an old TNT blouse pattern from it, thinking there was plenty.  That was wrong thinking  my first challenge.  I wanted the print to not only be centered vertically, but horizontally as well, so I treated it as a horizontal stripe. 

Had I changed the pattern to have a separate front facing instead of cut-on facings, I would have been more successful in trying to match all the pieces.  But those cut-on facings take up a lot of fabric.  I know that.  I was in denial.

So that the print would match horizontally around the body, I rotated the bust dart to the underarm.

Original pattern

Cut out bust dart

         Original dart closed and new dart rotated to underarm.

All was well.  Until I started to cut the sleeves.  In order to cut the print so that the sleeves/body stayed horizontally matched, I had to cut the sleeve vertically in the center, add seam allowances and make it a 2-piece sleeve.

I also had to shorten the sleeve to 3/4 length and add a cuff.

The pieces are all cut out.  As I worked on it, I wondered why I'm going through all this aggravation for a blouse.  Although I like the fabric, it's not not the most fabulous I've owned, and it was free, after all.  I just don't want to be defeated by a piece of fabric.

And sew I go on.  I win.  But --what price glory?