Colette Taffy - Second fitting and finishing up

After a bit of resentment at the misery of the first fitting I decided to view this Taffy as a muslin and just finish it up.
Here's a picture of the second fitting, front view. I like it a lot better than the first and I didn't make any changes, except adding the sleeves. This top is all about the sleeves, so it figures it improved a lot with them on.
It's not a lot more flattering, but I think that with the right top under and a less muffin topping bottom it'll be ok.
If I make Taffy again I'll change the shape of the neckline, I'm still not liking this very much.
 
And here is the back view.
The ties are not made of bias binding, I didn't make enough. I cut new strips of the binding fabric and sewed tubes which I turned. I couldn't finding my markings from the pattern on where to attach them, so I tried them out and set them at my natural waist. I thought they gave the most flattering line at that position.
For some reason, now unclear to me, I decided to set the ties at an angle with the side seam. I guess I thought they'd sag naturally at my back and therefor look better at an angle, but as you can see they don't. Instead they pull at the side seam. So I should have set them at right angles with the side seam as the pattern instructed.
I also wish I'd made the ties narrower, to match the binding. Perhaps something like the cording as seen here at the Coletterie.
 
The top folded on top of my ironing board.
Here you can see how narrow the bias tape is. This in combination with the bouncy mystery fabric made it rather tiresome to work. The fabric does not take pressing at all. I tried the printable-bias-tape-maker from The Scientific Seemstress. It was lots of fun printing, cutting, glueing and it worked nicely, at first, before it broke. I think it would have held together better if I'd printed it on sturdier paper and let it dry properly. And of course, it would have worked nicer had the fabric been more willing to be pressed.

Here's a close up of the bias binding, inside and outside at the neck line.
I first sewed the bias tape (unpressed) right sides together close to the seam line. I then trimmed the sewing allowance down to match the bias tape. Then I hand basted the bias tape to the inside of the top. That last step was crucial since the tape was so narrow, the fabric so slippery and also since the bias tape wouldn't let itself be pressed. After basting I sewed it on, stitch in the ditch, from the right side, as you can see on the lower binding. On the upper you can see the somewhat wavy seam as seen from inside the blouse. 

This last picture is a detail of the stiching in the ditch.
This picture also shows my sewing machine, Singer 766.
Now, all I have left is hemming the lower edge and finishing off the ties.
I decided to hand stich a rolled hem seam for the lower edge and have finished the back side of the Taffy.
The waist ties will be shortened to a good length and have their ends finished. I'm thinking perhaps with knots and a pearl or something like that.
When it's all finished I'll get some new pics with Taffy all styled and ready for wear.