The 'Peter Pan Polka Dots' Blouse & MMM Kickoff

Oh, by the way... I've signed up for Me Made May.

Sometimes I put the little 'participating' button on the side of the blog and then forget to actually talk about it.  But I really enjoyed the last Self-Stitched September and pretty much signed myself up mentally immediately afterwards.  So here's my pledge this time around:

'I, Christine of What's Up, Cupcake? Blog, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '12. I endeavour to wear at least one handmade garment each day for the duration of May 2012.'

Essentially the same as last time, but my wardrobe has really grown over the last few months.  I hope to have less duplicates, though there are some items that I just love so they're in constant rotation.

I'll lump the posts together when possible so you're not reading a 'what I wore' post everyday, but I'll  make sure to call out new items... like this one!

MMM '12 Day 1: The 'Peter Pan Polka Dots' Blouse

The Facts

Fabric: not sure of the fabric... 2 yards of a vintage silky white with blue polka dots fabric that I picked up from the flea market $10

Pattern: Megan Nielsen's Banksia, second time making it $0

Year: Contemporary

Notions: Buttons $1.50, bias tape and elastic from stash 

Time to complete: 3.5 hours

First worn: 1st of May as my first Me Made May item!

Wear again? All the time!

Total cost: $11.50

As I mentioned the first time I made Megan Nielsen's Banksia, this is the perfect blouse.  It's so fast to sew, so few pattern pieces, and only requires a minimal amount of fabric.  It's also the perfect mix between casual and work appropriate, so with this version I made sure to touch on the latter.  I never have enough blouses for work and as soon as I laid my hands on this fabric I knew it would be perfect.  It's a nice, silky fabric but it came together as smoothly as if I were working with cotton.  So, no idea what it is, but I love it.

I started on this blouse immediately after the last one but I had a slight delay in finishing it just because I didn't have the buttons on hand.  I finally made it out to the store this weekend to pick some up.  The only change I made to the blouse, and really just because I liked the look it had on my Darling Ranges dress (post coming soon) was to add elastic into the sleeves.  I liked the little gathered look it adds to the ends.

I've noticed the blogisphere aflutter with MMM announcements, so are you participating?

The 'You've Got Me Collared' Blouse

This week's Sew Weekly challenge was of the childhood theme - mainly based off of a childhood photo.  Not only that, but it's the first garment from my Spring/Summer palette sewing.  Luckily, I grew up in a warm weather area so I was able to combine the two. Multitasking at it's finest, right?


Finding a childhood photo to represent the fashion decisions of my parents was a bit of a challenge.  The hubby and I have moved so many times and my collection of childhood photos is pretty scarce already.  Locating them can be a bit of a scavenger hunt.  On top of that, sometimes I'm surprised that my parents owned a camera... much less that I take so many pictures myself.  One day I'd love to go through my mom's basement and see if somewhere in there, there is a huge collection of photos that I never knew existed.  Alas, I don't think that's the case.  So in flipping through my baby photos - that majority of the childhood photos that I own, I found one common theme - the peter pan collar.  

I was rockin' the peter pan collar when I was a kid.  90% of my baby photos had one and my future school uniforms all ended up with the option.  Which is strange because along with tights, button up blouses were on my childhood axis of evil.  I swear my mom found the itchiest, frilliest tights possible to dress me up in, and I hated every one of them.  But, I digress.

For this week's challenge, I wanted a girly blouse reminiscent of my youth.  I decided to try out a new pattern - first, because I had just ordered it, and second because it only required a small amount of yardage, which was just enough for the two yards of floral cotton that I picked up in the recent Bay Area fabric/pattern swap hosted by Mena.  I combined it with some cream cotton for the collar.

The Facts

Fabric: 2 yards cotton floral print (I believe it's a feedsack cloth), free from swap, 1/2 yard cream cotton $3

Pattern: Megan Nielsen Banksia $13 on sale

Year: Contemporary

Notions: 3 pink buttons $1.00

Time to Complete: 3 hours

First worn: This week on a beautiful, sunny day!

Wear again: Oh yes, this will be going into constant rotation

Total Price: $17

The pattern was so simple to put together and a fast sew - total satisfaction project.  I whipped this out from cut, instructions dissection, and full assembly, in just 3 hours.  I inserted the placket using the second method that she described, which was apparently the harder of the two versions but still very easy to figure out.  The instructions were crystal clear and the illustrations were great.  As soon as I finished this blouse I started working on another one just because I had the fabric handy it was so easy to put together.

Placket installed with method 2

Aside from the installation of the placket, I really liked Megan Nielsen's directions for installing the peter pan collar.  It looks really tidy and nicely closes up the seams - and you don't have to worry about any edges flipping upwards.

A closeup of the collar installation

I will definitely be wearing this again. It's extremely comfortable and lightweight; perfect for Bay Area spring and summer weather.  It's casual, but not t-shirt casual, so I don't feel super lazy wearing it.  I've been really into floral prints recently and needing more separates so this is the perfect addition to my wardrobe.