First Blouse from Basic Black

The first thing I have to mention is that the fabric that I ordered thinking it was black because it was in the black section is in fact navy blue!  I had intended on using some black lace that I already had on this project but when I put it beside it, it became very clear that it was in fact navy blue. The second thing to note is that I chose a chiffon and if you are new to sewing maybe don't use this as it is not forgiving to unpicking and so on.  It also will not have any stability at the neck unless you improvise like I did below.
First I cut out the pieces after tracing them on grease proof paper.

You have to allow 1cm seam allowance when you cut out on your fabric as it is not allowed on the pattern.

As I did not have the correct colour lace now and the fabric being so flimsy I had to come with something new for the front of my blouse.  I cut out two rectangles in the fabric and two in black lining fabric and pleated them.  After much ironing it was certain these were not going to hold for long on their own so I stitched horizontally across them with a decorative stitch to keep them in place.  I then attached  these to my front yoke pieces.

You get the idea here. It certainly would have been too flimsy without this reinforcement.

I cut out all my pieces slightly more than 1cm, I have to say I am always cautious but when it was all assembled I did need to take some out of the sides as it was roomy but the sleeves were perfect so I would cut the same again. You can always take out but you can't add once you have cut!

As I was not doing the lace detail at the bottom of the sleeve I just faced it in the same way with the folded chiffon just like at the neck and added a few little pleats, I just made sure the length I cut would slide over my hands then I pleated the bottom of the sleeve to it, turned it over folded it and hand stitched it down.

I did a lot of hand stitching on this as the neck was all hand stitched but I find this peaceful.

 I will make this in white for the summer I think, next time with the lace.

As you can see the style is very loose, and I did take a bit more off the sides after trying on but it supposed to be like that. A bit of a cool iron and it will be good.

Daylight pictures are much better. It was dark at 3, sorry for the blurry image!