When I got issue 23 of Love Sewing I fell in love with view B of the Keyhole Blouse pattern, and immediately traced my pattern and started thinking about what fabric I should use. In the end, I settled on one of the pieces I bought a couple of years back from Minerva Crafts.  I think it is viscose. Don’t remember. Its been such a long time that I got it.

I made my top with long sleeves with a cuff.

Based on the finished garment measurements on the back of the envelope, I decided to  cut a size 10. I felt that would be ok as I don’t like my tops to be too large on me. Too much ease would make me look fat. And that is not the look I’d like to go  for.  For the neck binding I used ready made bias binding in black to show of that design feature. This means I did not trace at piece of the pattern.           The top itself is pretty easy to make. I did not even look at the instructions.   I used French seams for hide the raw edges. This took a little longer since I sewed each seam twice. But it looks good inside as well. I only used the overocker to finish seams on the sleeves once they were added to the top. I thought it would be fun to add some piping between the main body of the sleeve and the cuff. However, because the pattern on the fabric is so busy it gets lost, unless you know it’s there and look for it. But, look at that, although there is a French seam, I managed to get it in perfectly. Well done me! LOL. Looking at it I kind of like adding little details like that, so I will for sure think of doing this more often on my projects, but will try to stick to plain fabrics so the piping actually shows a bit more. As I ran out of cotton bias tape, I decided for the hem of the blouse to use black satin bias tape but added to the inside, so it does not show its shine on the right side. Because I decided that I wanted to  show of the neckline, I tried to cut off the seam allowance on the V-neck. But I got a bit carried away with that and cut to low. Ups! Pick-a-boo! You  can see my bra! (It is hiding well in this picture, but it’s so in your face in real life)The fit of the top is ok. However I find that the sleeve is a bit to tight on me. After I sewing it up, I’ve seen on another blog that someone else found the sleeve a bit to tight as well. However, after doing a French seam on a fabric a bit delicate, the last thing I wanted to do was to undo all those stiches. No way Jose! I just have to live with it.              To fix the bra flashing, I will have to wear the top with a camisole to hide it, not really the look I am after, but modesty is more important to me.                         In order to fix my zeal in cutting off the seam allowance on the neck line, I made a little bow with the excess at the centre from, hoping that it will hide my bra. No such luck! I still need the camisole. So, I am now considering to sew part of it up, but I will lose the V neck look on it, which is the detail that first caught my attention. What do you think I should do? Leave it as it is now or sew the centre line shut?