Marfy 2204 Blouse size 48. Everyone needs a white blouse!

You know when you need ANOTHER white blouse when:

1. Your work place unintenionally ruins them
2. You MUST have a closet section devoted to whites!
3. You make one yourself because there is always one element in store bought items that annoys you

For reason 2,  I have already done in spades but for reasons 1 and 3 this is where I kind of get annoyed.
As for my work place at the time being, I get permanent stains on my cuffs and because of that, the bleaching I need to do wears the fabric out faster than I think.  This is where you might consider store bought blouses at disposible prices.
This is my personal preference but I have been seeing back yokes on women's blouses and it ANNOYS me.  I find this element on blouses for women to be too masculine.  I want to get away from looking like a box. (I only disagree with this design part personally because I have seen women wear men's dress shirts.  I thought that they might think that I don't notice these things...but I do.) There are only a few examples where this is an exception.  Counter to that, I have been seeing on backs of men's dress shirts shaping darts and that is too feminine for men.  WHATEVER!

So, what do I do?  I make my own....obviously.  So, I found looking through my current stash, I don't have what I really want, so I order a Marfy pattern....well who would have thought that of me?

And, as I pointed out, I really do get my money's worth here because for the style and price it's great.

So, this is all about putting a blouse together.  Yes, it's white, poplin material, and not to be worn to work.  BONUS!

Look at this!
No centre back seam
No yoke
Simple mandarin collar
Princess seams
Pleats on top of  3/4 length sleeve
Fancy cuffs
10-15mm buttons

Yep, this pattern pretty much defines the feminie shape...not like those yokes I see on blouses and women wearing men's dress shirts....bit of a cop out if you ask me.

Well, enough of my yoke rant.  We shall precede. 

Don't forget my disclaimer: USE THIS AS A GUIDE. I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL!

I don't know what year this pattern came from, but it has been on the Vogue website forever.  I bought it thinking it would become obsolete or run out of stock.  I got it!

So, let's begin:

Step 1:  Take inventory of your pieces.  You may have to draft something, or something might be missing(unlikely) but don't rule it out yet!

For this pattern you should have:

Front piece (cut 2)
Side front piece (cut 2)
Side back piece (cut 2)
Back Piece (cut 1 on fold)
Sleeve piece (cut 2)
Front Button facing (cut 2, apply interfacing)
Cuff (cut 2 on the bias)
Cuff facing (cut 2, apply interfacing)
Collar (cut 1 on fold on the bias)
Collar facing (cut 1 on fold on the bias)

Other supplies needed:

10 buttons of 15mm size (6 for the front and 4 for the cuffs)
Fusible interfacing
Matching sewing thread
Matching serger threads
Fabric needed 1.5 m of 1.4m wide fabric

Now, my fabric has some stripes but it is all a white based fabric, so I am not that concerned about the matching too much, but I think I can watch it closely anyway.

I have drafted in a 1 cm seam allowance with a 2 cm hem allowance.  Standard for me.
Therefore, substitute your own drafted seam allowance where suitable. I may have to remove the hem allowance.  Blouse is quite long.

To finish your seams, choose:

1. Zig-zag stitch
2. Serge shut
3. French seam
4. Pink shear seam allowance
5. Bias bind seam...bulky?

Step 2:  Cut out 2 of the front buttonhole facing with the L seam with notch and apply interfacing to the wrong side of each piece.  If you use fusible, to heat bond it to the fabric press directly down. This should provide an air bubble free application.  I also think it is safe to apply the fusible interfacing on the lowest minimum hot setting it can take.  I have singed/melted things in the past.

L notch match point is at the top at the neck line
Press under 1 cm on one long side of facing.
Sew right sides together for facing on the inside

The reason why we need to cut 2 of this piece is because there is no extension for the left side to fold back for a self facing.  Some patterns have this already drafted for one of the sides depending on the gender the shirt is for.  It is perfectly acceptable to apply two facings to both sides, but be aware that the buttonholes are on the right side for us girls!

Step 3:

Match the notch on the L match point at the top of the centre of the front. Since the picture indicates that a contrasting blue facing exists on the inside of the shirt, we must therefore:

Pin right side of facing to right side of front piece.  Press under 1 cm of the unpinned side of facing.  Sew the facing to the centre front.  Press this seam and turn to the wrong side of garment.

Press facing to wrong side and edge stitch facing
Front facing is done

Step 4:

With right sides together, sew the A seam.  This consists of the back piece to the side back pieces.  Press seam out.

If you feel the need to staystitch the curve on the A seam go ahead, I didn't need to.  See, I'm still lazy.

Pattern pieces have an A match seam on the back and side back

Step 5:

With right sides together, sew the B seam.  This consists of the front piece to the side front piece. Press seam out.  Again, staystitch this curve if you have to.

Sew the B match seam on the Front-side front.

Step 6:

With right sides together, sew the C seam joining the back half to the front half of the blouse. Press seam. 

With right sides together, sew the shoulder seams together and press.  The shoulder seam does not have a letter match point. 

Step 7:

At this point, you want to finish these 6 seams if you haven't already.  This should be done before you set the sleeves in.  I chose to serge shut my seams.  This is very common in store bought clothes, but if you choose to sew french seams, then, your seams are already finished.

I serge with the top side facing (upper looper thread) towards the centre of the back.  All you need is a 3 thread serge.  But, if you must do a 4 thread, do whatever you want

The serge here is the upper looper thread facing up
pressed towards the centre back of the shirt
Fabric too thick for French seams

Step 8:

Press all  6 finished seams towards the back.

Step 9:

Set in the sleeves.

MAKE A MARK ON FABRIC WHERE THE PATTERN SAYS : "Front sleeve"

This is very important to have this side facing towards the front of your shirt. Sometimes, set-in sleeves are perfectly symmetrical, and other times they are not, so make sure to do this.

First, with right sides together, sew the seam joining both sides of the sleeve. 

Then press seam and serge shut so you may know what the right side is.  Once again, the upper looper should be facing towards the back of your shirt which should match up with the direction of your C seam.

For this sleeve, the picture suggests to pleat the sleeve cap until you acheive a perfect fit.  Now, keep in mind that pleats are a variable at this point.  What I mean is, you can have many pleats (small size) or fewer pleats (large size) to bring your sleeve cap to fit right without having to make a gather stitch.  I could be misinterptreting the picture, maybe it is gathered, but NO!  The pattern instructions say PLEAT.  Whatever you want to do, that is fine.

I managed to fit 6 pleats to ease the fit of the sleeve cap.  I also recommend that the pleats be done between the notches on the sleeve cap.  There is a middle notch on the sleeve cap which is there to match up to the shoulder seam, so make sure you mark three notches on your sleeve cap.

Also, when forming the pleats, have them directed towards the back of the shirt.  It looks better this way.  I seldom see them directed towards the front.

Step 10:

Press sleeve seam,and softly press the pleats on the right side and serge shut. I realise that this is a closed loop now but at the end of your completed serge, the serge trail can be fixed.

Step 11:

Sewing the cuffs.

Now, Marfy has 2 cuff pattern pieces that one is used for a facing, which is the larger piece that is cut on the grain.  The other has a buttonhole marking that is cut on the bias which is the outside piece that is smaller than the other.

Apply interfacing to the wrong side of cuff facing
This wll be the piece that is larger and cut on the grain

With right sides together, sew the bottom of cuff pieces together
The pieces won't match up on the top

Here I have pressed out 1.2 cm (1/2 inch) on facing to match up with the other side

Once you have pressed out the difference in area to line up both ends of the cuffs, with right sides together, sew the side of cuffs leaving the top open.  Clip corners but be careful. Press out seams.  Baste top of cuff.

With right sides together,  pin prepared cuff to the sleeve end matching the D match point.  When finished, the cuffs will face downward.
Sew seam and press seam towards cuff.  Finish seam.

Finished cuff

Anyway, I don't know how else to deal with the cuff as the pattern pieces are and what the picture shows.
Sometimes we just have to improvise and make do.
I am skipping the buttons and button holes on my cuff.  Just because I wanna!

Step 12:

Attaching the collar.

This type of collar is a simple stand or mandarin style of collar. It is also a neck band on other full collars.  In the picture, the edge of the collar ends at the beginning of the button hole facing.  I am going to change that to sew the collar the entire length instead, so I need to draft an extra 5 cm from the fold and 1 cm at the front end. I could have done it the way the picture is, but I think my fabric is too thick!

Plus, I actually don't quite have enough fabric to cut these two pieces on a bias fold, so, I will have to cut it on a straight grain fold, and to me it looks fine.  It basically matches up with your other straight grain pieces, but, oh well.

Press  under 1 cm to the wrong side of the uninterfaced piece.

Pin the right side of the interfaced section to the right side of neck line on blouse. You will have a 1 cm more room on your collar at the end of the button hole facing at the front of the blouse.

This means you must match the end of your centre front 1 cm in from the collar on the long side.  Match notches.

Sew right sides together the interfaced section to the top of the shirt on the long end from centre front to centre front.

Press up towards the collar

With right sides together, sew the curved end of the uninterfaced piece to the interfaced piece.

Baste the open end of the uninterfaced collar to the sewing line from the interfaced piece.  Sew a edgestitch along the bottom of collar to close it.

Press under 1 cm to the wrong side

There is a 1 cm over hang past the centre front

Step 13:

Button hole sewing

Mark the position of your button holes in the centre of your button hole facing.  As the pattern piece suggests, sew buttonholes running vertically.  I suggest JP Coats dual duty all purpose sewing thread.  It is really strong and it won't break and fluff up.

Step 14:

Hand sew your buttons in place!  I think it is better this way, plus they won't fall off so easily.

I actually ended up using a 12 mm button size instead.  Works just fine.

Step 15:

Finish the hem.

Choose to finish your hem any which way you want.

Step 16:

TA DAH!  We're done!