A little time, and JJ

 The JJ blouse, that is.

With a little extra time tonight, I got started on a blouse similar to one that's been rolling around in my head for the past year or so.  This pattern is called the JJ blouse, and it is available here.

I've blogged about BurdaStyle before, and about just how dangerous it can be to wander around in their free pattern section!  I'm not exactly sure how I ran across this blouse, but it was probably in a Flickr pool or something.  Regardless of how we found each other, this pattern has been crying out for me to make it for ages now!  I love the unabashed femininity of it.

There was a bit of a lull in my afternoon, so I hunted through my fabric boxes and found 1.5M of this lovely older Jinny Beyer fabric from 'way back when I had the shop.  Most of the fabric I have is in relatively small pieces, as I was a quilter for so long.  Back in those days I never bought terribly much of any one thing unless it was for borders or backgrounds, or backing in a quilt.

I was a little worried that the cotton fabric would have far too much stiffness and the ruffles would be completely unruly, but things seem to be working out just fine.  The fabric has enough body that it's easy to work with, but enough give that the ruffles don't stand straight out like fins or something.

Obviously this is not one of the heavier cottons I used to love for quilting.  In fact, now that I think about it, I can remember kvetching with customers that my beloved Jinny Beyer had gone to a new, lower thread count stock to have her patterns printed on!  Funny, eh?  Tonight I was glad for that lower thread count.

Things have a way of working out, I guess.

Now my head is a-buzz with ideas for variations on this pattern...maybe pleats instead of ruffles, maybe different fabrics for all of the different pieces (that would certainly be more useful for using up some of the stash...), a redrafted bodice, some sewn in elastic to nip in the waist a little more.....

Or maybe I should just concentrate on finishing this one...

:)

My progress tonight got me to the point of finished the fronts and back.  Soon, sleeves!!

Cheers,
Lisa