Vintage Indonesian Sarong Batik into a Blouse

When I got married, my Aunt who lives in Indonesia gave me a beautiful batik tablecloth that I love.  The batik is not the ordinary mass-produced batiks that you find in your local fabric store.  It has a varying design of detailed flowers and is hand painted in many bright colors.  My Mom also has a similar tablecloth, and I was asking her about Indonesian batiks and the possibility of using them for products in my shop.  I was so excited when she told me that my grandmother had several Indonesian batiks that she would try to find for me the next time she went to Japan.  My Mom wasn't sure when Obachan had bought these, but she figured it was sometime in the 80s.

She brought me three beautiful ones when she visited in the Fall.  Since then, I have been trying to find some "free time" to create something for myself with these beautiful pieces of fabric.  A few days ago I bit the bullet and just decided that my orders can wait a few days and that I will actually sew something for myself :)
 

This is my favorite batik of the three

  I decided to use my favorite batik first since I have been thinking about making a summertime blouse with it since my Mom first brought it to me.  It has several great design features in the fabric:

There is a pretty border running along one of the selvages that I thought would be nice for the bottom of the blouse.

There is a block of diagonal stripes at the top section of the fabric - maybe for the shirt yoke or an interesting bias tape?

The detail in the floral design is lovely.

I used this shirt as a starting point to make a pattern.

I thought about having the main part of the shirt in the floral pattern and the sleeve/back yoke portion in the diagonal stripe fabric.  I decided that that combination might be too bold for me, so I decided to use the floral pattern for the entire shirt.  I used the stripe pattern for bias tape to trim out the neck and bottom hem.  I love how it turned out:

Back view

Close up of the neat bias tape

Now I am on to thinking about what I will make with my other two batiks!