The return of M6512

I love white shirts. I love to wear them year round, love how they look with jeans, and under cardigans, or on their own. But my white shirt wardrobe is in need of a few replacements, because as we all know, white does not last forever. Especially with the amount of wear a much loved garment can get.

So I've started replenishing the white shirt stock, starting with McCall's 6512, the "Chic Soft Blouse". This is my second time around with this pattern, the tie neck version was one of my most worn blouses of this past winter.

I made the same size as my earlier version, but this fabric has more body, and the pockets really reduce the drape of the fabric as well, so I feel like I could have sized down. This is a Palmer/Pletsch pattern, so there are lots of helpful alteration lines included, but I did not use any. It's a pretty easy fit, at any rate.

The back - there are two small tucks at the back yoke.

The front again.

If you look carefully, you can see topstitching!

It even looks nice just laying there.

The fabric itself is quite possibly viscose, and handles really nicely. It's got a very subtle texture, which adds a bit of interest to the "plain white shirt" vibe. There are a couple of tricky seam intersections in this pattern, so instead of a french seam, I serged the seam allowances and topstitched them down for the sleeve and yoke, and added topstitching to the neck band and button placket as well. I didn't want the pocket flaps to get any more perky than necessary, so I left them plain. One thing I will say about the pocket flaps, I wish I had not used interfacing. They don't lay down quite a nicely as I would like, and in a semi-sheer fabric, they stand out a bit.

I'm really happy with this blouse, but not happy that I got caught biking home in the rain while wearing it! Hopefully all the road dirt comes out!