My first Banksia

I made this blouse Memorial Day weekend this year, and I didn’t get around to blogging it until now.  My brother does a big memorial day camp out on my family’s farm every memorial day, so I was out in western MA for that.  BUT the weather was really abysmal that weekend, so I spent most of it availing myself of my mother’s Bernina and didn’t set foot inside a tent even once.  I used the Banksia Blouse pattern from Megan Nielsen.

I love the pattern- it comes on the stiff paper, which is always a plus- and it came together fairly easily.  I’ve made a chiffon version of it since then, so stay tuned for that in a future post.

When I went out to pick out the fabric for the blouse, the salesgirl pointed to a rack of Liberty of London lawn.  The stuff runs $40/yd- so I went out, pawned my bike, came back, and bought a few yards of it.  If only…

The salesgirl, seeing my distress, ushered me over to the lifestyle line- a much more affordable quilting weight Liberty.  I thought making the whole blouse out of quilting cotton would look too home-ec, so I opted for a solid voile for the body, and made a contrast placket and bias neck binding out of the lifestyle.

…. and now it’s my favorite blouse. Also, now that I’ve made this, I see peter pan collars everywhere.  Like buying a yellow car?

Pictures were taken on the farm- photo credit to my lovely boyfriend, whom you can find over at Lost Continent Books