I just re-read my last post on The Assembly Line’s Billow Blouse from April 2024, and at the end of the post I indicated that I wanted to make this pattern up in this exact silk.  It may have taken 17mths, but I did it and I love it!

The fabric is a Charmeuse Silk Satin from work called Harmony.  It’s currently out-of-stock, but I have it on good authority that it has been reordered.

I’m one of those people that thinks special fabrics require special attention.  I therefore used French seams throughout and double folded the hem.

I repeated the pattern amendments from last time:

• I removed the centre back seam (which requires a little more fabric than the pattern suggests)
• I removed 2″ (5cm) from the sleeve length
• I performed my usual forward shoulder adjustment on a raglan pattern.  See my ‘how to’ buried in this blog post from 2020.

For this version, the neck facing, which the elastic is threaded through, stretched out when I was just looking at it!  I therefore opted to ditch the facing and make bias binding from the silk.  It was still tricky, but manageable.  Is it my best sewing?  No.  Is it functional? Totally.  Nothing to see here… wink wink!

I have a tendency to push the sleeves up when wearing this top… which reminds me to tell you that I used the suggested elastic lengths as per the pattern and they are perfect for me.

I sewed this top on a sewing weekend away with friends.  It was a slow make, but a very satisfying one.

I wore my new top to work last week and it just felt luxe!

Even though silk isn’t my favourite thing to sew, that luxe feeling will get me over the line next time I decided on sewing a silk garment.

Pattern:  The Assembly Line’s Billow Blouse (purchased from work)
Size:  Small
Fabric:  Loom Silk – Harmony
Alterations:  3/8″ (1cm) forward shoulder adjustment, shortened the sleeves by 2″ (5cm), eliminated the centre back seam & switched out the neck facing for bias binding.
Outfit:  Jeans from Caro (a few years ago), beach glass earrings by Susan Ewington Jewellery, antique necklace and boots from Obus (many moons ago).
Photo Location:  Ballarat