At first I thought to re-create the style using plain white cotton and finding some sort of broderie border to attach to the lower edges. Then during my long weekend away in Melbourne with Mum and Cassie I chanced upon this fabric in Tessuti; white cotton voile with beautifully intricate broderie anglaise borders already in situ. One selvedge had very wide embroidered borders, and the opposite had a narrower border in the same design. Utter perfection! I used the deeper edge for the body of the blouse and the narrower edge for the sleeves.
The pattern I used is top X, from the Stylish Dress Book by Yoshiko Tsukiori. A big oversized loose T-shirt/peasant blouse thing, slightly gathered into a narrow neckband with a faced front split.
The shoulder seams are French seams but for all the seams within the embroidered borders; I just overlocked the edges, stitched the seams then pressed them open; that broderie is just too thick with stitches to attempt any fancy seam finishes!
So; a nice easy project but I still had to steel myself to take the scissors to my fabric. That awful first snip! Of course, ruining beautiful fabrics is terrible and the fear of that can spiral you into major second-guessing, but maybe it's worse to hold back forever and never allow yourself take the chance on making something beautiful with it. Give yourself permission to try... that is why you bought it, remember? I have to repeat that to myself, like a mantra, every time I'm faced with special fabric that I totally and utterly adore. And I'm so relieved that I didn't ruin this lovely fabric!
Details:
Top; top X from the Stylish Dress Book by Yoshiko Tsukiori, broderie anglaise cotton voile
Skirt; Vogue 7303, lime print cotton
Sandals; Misano
