Sewing Projects 27: The “Snails and Petals” Blouse

Originally written for, and posted at, The Sew Weekly. Theme: Outdoors
The Facts
Fabric: Snail Scallop cotton from the “Prince Charming” collection by Free Spirit $9
Pattern: modified Simplicity 2211
Year: 2011
Notions: None
Time to complete: 6 hours (1 season of The Last Enemy)
First worn: Down to the in-laws’ place
Wear again? Oh yes!
Total price: ~$9

Oh what to do for this challenge. It’s always the biggest hurdle, isn’t it? For a while, I was going to do a tulip skirt, but I didn’t have any fabric that felt suitable. So something in grass green? Meh, that’s cheating a little. And then I remembered I had this fabric and I had been dying to make something with it. The snails felt like a perfect interpretation of of the challenge!

When I saw this fabric online I just loved it. I couldn’t get enough of this print! But I thought it was rather expensive for just a cotton, and when I saw it in person for the first time I thought it was a little larger of a print than I had pictured. So I didn’t buy it and convinced myself I didn’t need it anyway. And then a few months ago I started noticing that it was no longer available on some sites, and it looked to be discontinued. So I suddenly thought I had to buy it lest I regret it for the rest of my life!

I’ve gone with petal sleeves to incorporate a little more of the nature theme, and did a Peter Pan collar as well. I toyed with doing the print on the collar both ways (right-side-up, and upside-down) and matching either the front print or the line of the scallop. Both felt like they “worked”. I asked the hubs to make the final decision, and he went for “upside-down” which made me glad I took pains to match them. Here’s what the other option looked like.

I also toyed with doing a band at the bottom hem, with the print upside-down to do a scallop hem. But I thought that might be overkill. I should have enough fabric left over to do it in the future if I wanted. We’ll see. But as it is, I absolutely love this top. The fabric is a perfect weight, the print makes me happy, the details are the right amount of cutesy. I couldn’t be more pleased!