Marvin asked me if I could sew him a jacket. So I ordered fabric at Stoff&Stil. And because there was a big sale I ordered some pink-orangeish light cotton fabric for me too. At this point of time I haven’t even gotten started on Marvin’s jacket. I haven’t even bought the pattern. But I already made a blouse from the fabric I bought for me. To be fair I have to say, that Marvin won’t need the jacket until autumn and I really needed this blouse (haha), plus his fabric is gray and mine is pink. So I didn’t have a choice, did I? :)
I decided to make a blouse from the fabric and I settled on the Bruyere pattern from Deer&Doe. I already sewed it once and I feel really comfortable in that blouse. Also I thought that matching the plaids would be much easier with the waist band. Originally I decided to make short sleeves, but I only bought 1.5 m and didn’t have enough fabric, so I omitted the sleeves. I’m still not sure how I feel about sleeveless blouses. I have seen them a lot this summer and I think they’re sure practical, but their neither chick nor relaxed. But I thought I’d give it a try.
This time I remembered before I cut the fabric that I wanted to do French seams. It’s not like I really care about how my garments look from the inside, I just wanted to try it. I think it is kind of fun and it is also nice to have neat seams on the inside, but it is also more work and a little more difficult, especially when you have to match plaids.
I didn’t quite manage that, I paid attention to match the plaids when I did the first seam. And I totally forget when I made the second one. Whoops. I also feel like it is harder to unpick French seams and now the plaids on the side seams do not match exactly. I also had some troubles sewing the waistband, it is a little uneven now. I think I need some French seaming practice.
Those French seams aside I found the pattern to be easy, as easy as a pattern for a collared blouse can be. The collar and the button bands are easy to sew, especially because there are front and back facings. Omitting the sleeves made the whole thing easier too.
The instructions are for advanced sewers. In this case I think it means that you should already have sewn one or two blouses. Sewing Bruyere isn’t particularly hard, but the instructions aren’t very detailed. Apart from that sewing this blouse is a lot of fun!
Instead of setting in sleeves I finished the arm hole with bias binding and applied it like it is shown in the Hawthorn Tutorial.
I cut collar, button bands and waistband on the bias, because I really like the effect and if you do o, you don’t have to pay attention to matching plaids at the seams.
I again sewed size 38. Because I’m in between sized 36 and 38 I sewed the side seams with a 2.5mm seam allowance instead of the included 1.5 cm and that worked out fine.
All in all I’m very happy how the blouse turned out and I think I like it sleeveless, makes it easier to wear it with cardigans too, so that I can wear it in fall, too!
Have a great day!
Katharina
I like it sleeveless! It looks fresh, airy, light and oh-so-cute! You absolutely had to sew that top first as I can see the fabric would not give you any peace until you did. Great choice!
You did a lovely work on matching the plaids :) Pretty blouse, I love sleeveless as well and your fabric is lovely :)
This is brilliant. I can see you trying a lengthened as a shirt dress too!
Hehe, your first paragraph gave me such a laugh! I do that sort of thing all the time too! The good thing though is that your blouse is totally gorgeous. I love it! I’m inspired to check this pattern out, seriously. I think your plaid matching looks just fine. We who sew are often quite hard on ourselves when it comes to that!. And I think I like your sleeveless version better than with sleeves, too :).