I’m very slowly catching up on some of my makes. This week’s make is my McCall’s M7542, which I received for free with my issue 11 of SewNow Magazine.

I knew I wanted to make this pattern since I caught a glimpse of it in my previous issue of the magazine. To make it I shopped my own fabric stash and used some cotton I remember buying from my Local Abakhan store. I decided to make the pleat section in a solid colour for two reasons: not enough of the main fabric and to attract the eyes to the pleats.

As a habit of mine, I tend to cut the interfacing pieces for facings before fusing them to my fabric. This process saves me a bit of fabric, helps me use as much scrap fabric and sometimes saves me some pieces of fabric which are big enough to use in other projects.Another step in my construction, that I do even when not in the instructions, is to staystitch the neckline, to prevent them from stretching out.This is a pretty easy make. The only difficult bit is the pleated sleeve. Which in itself is not difficult, it just requires one to be accurate with marking and make use of tacking before actually inserting into the sleeve itself. I used my water erasable pencil to mark the pleats.

Once this was completed, I pinned them into place and then temporary stitched them by hand.

I think taking the time to do all this prep work, was well worth it. My finished sleeves look great.The rest of the construction was super easy. I did not actually use the instructions at all.

To keep the facings to stay put, I under-stitched it once it was in.Also, I put a few stitched on the seam allowances on the shoulders for the same reason.I am quite happy with the finished top. However, if I make it again I will lengthen the bodice by about 3-5 cm and I’ll stitch in the pleats about 2-4 cm beyond the seam allowance so they keep their shape when I wear the top and I move my arms.

This is a lovely pattern, a must during the year of the sleeve. At first, I tried not to join the trend in making a pattern using a detail on the sleeve, even though I felt a bit left out. Its just I don’t like doing what everyone else is doing. I prefer to do my own thing. I just could not stay out of it when I saw view C of McCalls M7542.

I am sure I’ll be making other versions of this blouse, maybe with longer sleeves or maybe attempting the gathered sleeve detail just for a change, though gathers are not my thing.