Slow Cloth
A blouse that evolved over 15 years!

Click image for enlargement.
The inspiration for this blouse was a sample exchange that I took part in for Convergence 2002, a weaving conference in Vancouver. I liked the fabric that I cut up into small pieces to exchange and planned to weave more to make a blouse.

The years flew by..... This is a "muslin" made in the spring of 2015 to try out my chosen pattern before the fabric was woven.

(13:04:2015)

The trial blouse did NOT fit well. But in April of 2015 I was privileged to attend a workshop on sewing with handwoven fabric, taught by Daryl Lancaster. She showed me how to alter the pattern so the blouse would fit - by writing right on the muslin! After all - I was never going to wear it.

(25:04:2015)
In June of 2015 the fabric was woven. It went with me to Saskatchewan in July to be shown off as yardage and then to Prince George where it was wet finished and pressed by Laura Fry. Then I got busy with other things again....

Jump ahead to May 2016 - I spent most of May and part of June making a second "muslin" blouse. This one fit well.

(06:06:2016)

More time passed. And I kept looking at my rather busy fabric and all those buttons, the separate button band and the rolled sleeves.

The blouse above was made from the shirt pattern on the right, but I also had a pattern (from 1970!) for a pullover blouse.

(10:01:2017)
In January I started playing with the two muslin blouses and the patterns - to shorten the sleeves and to cut out a trial of the slot neckline from a piece of the muslin. It was April before I actually tried sewing it. And then - just because I was nervous about doing that slot in the handwoven fabric, I tried it again with some of the extra handwoven fabric! It worked even better in the heavier fabric!!

(14:04:2017)

Here is a closer look at the finished neckline of the blouse. The fabric here is stabilized with lightweight fusible interfacing.

Another change from the original plan was that the blouse was cut crosswise of the fabric so that the "mountain" pattern in the cloth ran vertically instead of horizontally around my body.

(15:05:2017)
For those who care about these things - all of the edges were serged after cutting the pieces out and stay stitched anywhere the cut wasn't straight of the grain. There are no raw edges on the inside and the hems were sewn by hand.

(15:05:2017)

The blouse was finally completed on May 13 - I just didn't get around to photos until the 15th.

(15:05:2017)

Here it is with the vest made in 2002 from the samples that inspired it. The patch that I made with the same yarns is second from the bottom on the left.

(15:05:2017)
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