A Matched Set

A couple of years ago, I decided that pairing my favorite skirt (Butterick 4792) with a Smooth Sailing Blouse was a fabulous idea.

I wanted to use a red linen that I had stashed, unfortunately, that skirt uses a massive amount of yardage. 

I managed to get a fabulous skirt out of the linen, but I couldn't squeeze in a blouse with the leftover scraps.  (It always amazes me how much fabric a blouse requires.)

Well, I decided that I loved this cotton print so much, I wanted the opportunity to wear it as much as possible, and separates seemed like the best way to accomplish that.

It was still a squeeze, but I managed to cut both the skirt and blouse out of my cotton.

And then I found some vintage buttons in my button drawer that matched the dogwood stamens. 

The match was too perfect to ignore, so I ditched my initial idea of using cream colored buttons.

And while I was willing to live on the edge and use machine buttonholes on my first version of this blouse, I just couldn't do that to this fabric.  So I went with a classic bound buttonhole.

It may take a little more time and effort, but the result is so worth it!

Add a bit of rayon seam binding to the mix, and you get a beautifully finished coordinate set.