Every once in a while I give-in to temptation and purchase a piece of fabric off TradeMe. I do think long and hard before bidding though, because I've noticed there's a bit of ignorance about what fibres some fabrics are made from, and colours can be very different, depending how they've been photographed. I hummed and haa-ed about this piece of Crêpe de Chine until the very last moment before bidding because, although it was listed as silk, it definitely looked like polyester. Happily, it is silk.
At only 80cm (×140cm wide), I needed to think carefully about what to make as there was no room for error. Finally I settled on a blouse using just the bodice pieces of Butterick 9698. I added 20cm to the bottom to make it a better length for a blouse, curving upwards towards the side seams like a men's shirt hem.
Unfortunately, there wasn't enough fabric to cut bias bind for the neck edge on Version A, so I went for the bagged out and topstitched Version B. Next time I'd like to make Version A though, because binding will add a bit more definition to the button overlap. From a distance this looks like a fairly run-of-the-mill v-neck blouse with an odd, slightly off centre button. It's only when you come in a bit closer you see whats actually going on.
And speaking of buttons, 20¢ from the Mary Potter Hospice shop in Kilbirnie. These days if I can't find something in the stash, this is the first place I look. They have a great variety of vintage buttons, the tricky bit is finding enough of the same ones to complete a project!
