This is what I wear when it's really important

Guess what! I got accepted to medical school!!! 

YAY YAY YAY YAY! Come August, I will be joining the ranks of the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine's class of 2016. In four short years, I might just change the name of this blog to "Dr. Hollybee Makes Stuff."

But this post is not about that. This post is about a lovely blouse that I just happened to make for my interview to said university. In the last few days before the MCAT I needed something to get my mind away from freaking out too much about the exam, and so I devised and implemented the design for this wonderful addition to my wardrobe. 

Why pale green? Why, to match my eyes of course!

I made a standard button-down slightly fitted blouse, and came up with the idea of adding the pleated detailing to the front in a kind of tuxedo-top style to add a bit of uniqueness to an otherwise normal design. 

Ohhhh my gooooodness --- those pleats took a lot of fabric!!

It took me hours to get those things right, and a number of minor burns on my hands and fingers from the iron (and pokes from the straightpins!). But I got those pleats looking gorgeous. I decided to add a flat edging to them to make them easier to deal with, and flipped one edge over to give a kind of twisted style to them. That way they were even more 3D and amazing. 

Here I am on interview day at the campus! I had just finished all the events for the day when I remembered I needed to snap a photo of myself in all my stylishness. Needless to say that grabbing a picture of myself in high winds by holding my phone backwards while juggling a full purse and a fountain soda was a bit of a challenge. But you can see me, a bit of the blouse, and even a bit of the campus in the background!

Lessons learned: I cut the sleeves a good inch longer than the pattern called for, which didn't even end up being long enough. This pattern requires a good 3 extra inches to be safe (am I that much taller than the average woman? Somehow I doubt it.). This was fixed in this case by adding another set of twisted pleats in between the sleeve and the cuffs. 

Fun fact: while working on the pleats for hours, I caught the movie "No Strings Attached" on Netflix, which just happens to feature Natalie Portman as a nerdy girl from MIT who goes to med school and becomes an awesome doctor! And then she has lots of sex with Ashton Kutcher! Good thing Demi Moore's out of the way, because it looks like I have a great future ahead of me!