Bella Notte in Baby Blue

I started working on this blouse many years ago.  I recall that it was started in my previous apartment, and that I didn't have the energy to deal with the buttonholes at the time, so I put it aside.  It doesn't seem that I took many photos of the sewing process, although I can recall being irritated about the drag lines around the top-stitched portions of the garment.

This photo is my old apartment hallway, and it looks like the top-stitching was about as far as I got before packing it away, sans buttonholes, buttons, and a hem (oh, and it appears that only a single cuff was attached at this point).

Well, back in 2020, I suddenly had the urge to go through a lot of my unfinished projects, and this was one of them.  Thankfully, I had packed the perfect matching buttons away with the pattern and the partially complete blouse, so I didn't have to go searching for them.

And at this point, I had a secret weapon . . . a vintage buttonholer that I found at an estate sale.

So I marked my buttonholes in thread and pulled out that Greist buttonholer.

I also found this chisel tool at a different estate sale and it is far superior to the one I purchased new.  The brand new one wouldn't cut through multiple layers of fabric; I even attempted using a hammer to create enough pressure.  Turns out, it wasn't me, it was the chisel.  A small amount of pressure with this vintage version does the job!

Once again proving that they don't make things like they used to!

When I first complete this blouse I was unsure about the size of the collar.  The pattern is from the 1950s, but that collar was reading as 1970s to me, which was not the look that I wanted.

But having worn it out quite a few times, I am now temped to make another.  And maybe I will have more success with that top-stitching the next time around!