The finished Liz

Can you believe it?!? After 20+ years hanging in the sewing room (various sewing rooms, to be more accurate), awaiting buttonholes, buttons, and the hem, this lovely blouse has finally graduated to wardrobe status!
I shared a little about it here, but let me tell you just a bit more, now that it's finally done.

See the poufy sleeve? To make sure it stays that way, there's a little piece of stiff interfacing sewn in there, called a sleeve head. It's gathered separately, for maximum fluffiness at the sleeve cap.

I redid all the buttonholes on the placket. I didn't take a picture of how bad they were at first, so you'll have to take my word for it. They were seriously puckered. But I knew how to fix that. In fact, I considered doing it right the first time, but brushed it off. Learned my lesson there.

You simply put a piece of paper under the fabric while sewing. It's that easy. I tend to use adding-machine tape, since that's something I have easy access to. I'd forgotten to bring any home with me, though, so I used a scrap of paper that had been wrapped around a remnant instead. Any paper will do. It's just that adding-machine tape is all long and skinny, and you could easily tear off a piece the length of your placket, making it easy to work with.
When you're done sewing the buttonholes, you just tear away the paper. Paper that was sewn into the buttonhole will wash out in a few washings, but you won't know it's there anyway.

I looked for my other set of cuff-linked buttons, but I think I must have given that blouse away, because I couldn't find them. So I stitched up another set for my french cuffs.

I'm pretty happy with this blouse. It's a little on the small side, and sort of has an 80's vibe about it. But I think it'll do.