Reducing facing width on Mimi Blouse

Welcome to my first post! In the true spirit of my blog, I thought I'd pick up exactly where I am in my current project, sharing my latest mistake and solution.

I am working my way through Tilly And The Buttons' book Love At First Stitch in order to build my dressmaking skills, and I find it excellent for explaining the techniques. I am on the fifth of 6 patterns - the Mimi Blouse, a loose-fitting short-sleeved blouse. My full review can be found here.

So here was my most recent face palm moment:

Mistake - Using a facing with sheer fabric

I chose a lovely Atelier Brunette off-white dobby viscose as I wanted this blouse to go with many things and was not too concerned about it being slightly sheer, I could always wear it with a vest top or nude bra. Then I attached the facings.

Oh crap. Look how ugly I've made it.

I soldiered on trying to ignore it, but I knew I wouldn't be crazy about wearing it as it was. Of course I then did a retrospective Google search and found all the advice I should have seen before, with the recommendation being to use binding instead, but this is not something I've used yet and I didn't want to try another new technique at this stage. And so my fix was ...

Solution - Reduce the facing width to where it can't be seen

Step 1: Decide on new facing width

Thankfully the pattern was drafted in a way that meant I could easily cut off the width I didn't need. The collar would hide a narrower facing round the back. The front pieces would overlap where the buttons are and so this seemed a natural width to make the front facing.

In the picture below, the feint blue line down the front is the fitting line, where the buttonholes and buttons will lie. This is 2cm from the edge of the front piece so I doubled this for the facing width making this 4cm, and made the neckline facing 2.5cm ensure it was hidden under the collar.

Step 2: Add 0.5cm to allow for folding the edge under

Only one fold was needed as the interfacing would prevent fraying. This made the width of the front facing 4.5cm in width and the neckline facing 3cm.

Step 3: Mark the cutting line on your fabric

I drew this line on with a Prym Aqua Trick Marker, roughly joining the lines where the neckline and front facing sections met, ensuring it would still be covered by the collar. I have this marker in turquoise and white which seems to be enough for every colour of fabric I've used. It just needs a small dab of water to remove the mark.