Lady in Red Part One: Jasmine Blouse

At the beginning of the year, I asked if anybody knew of a pattern for this blouse.  

I particularly loved the flowing lines, the sleeves and the bow, but sadly, no suggestions were forthcoming.  Fast forward a few months and Colette Patterns had quite obviously been reading my mind because their Jasmine blouse was exactly what I was after.

There were a few candidates for fabric, but I had to think carefully as this top is cut on the bias, making any print pattern appear on the diagonal.  In the end I went for a solid red (surprise, surprise). Partly because I thought the blouse would look awesome in red (which it does) but mostly because I'd scored yet again on the charity shop fabric front (3.5 metres of red crepe-backed satin for £3).  I chose to use the crepe side as my right side -  a red satin bow blouse might be just a tiny bit over the top for day wear. I've never worked with crepe-backed satin before and was surprised to find it's actually quite weighty. This does give it a lovely drape but it also makes it quite thick, which was a bit of a trial when it came to the collar and facings, but no great tragedy.

After my disastrous experience sewing with slippery fabrics on the bias, you'd think I'd have learnt my lesson.  Wrong.  Cutting it out was, in short, a nightmare.  And the icing on the cake was that within an hour of cutting it out, Sunni posted her foolproof guide to cutting slippery fabrics.  Doh.

The sizing was interesting.  Apart from the Crepe dress, I'm always the same size for Colette patterns - a size 8 - but the 8 I cut out was way too roomy and shapeless.  Taking an enormous gamble, I then took the blouse apart, laid all my pattern pieces out flat again and cut them down a size.  I was able to use Sunni's slippery fabric cutting method this time, which worked like magic, hoorah. The smaller size fit  perfectly, with just the right amount of roominess. I think the blouse benefits from being on the loose side, which is a departure for me as I like everything very fitted, but I do love how it looks tucked in.

The clever bias cut gives it shape without gripping you and you get the benefit of no zips or buttons.  So my advice on sizing for the Jasmine?  Go down a size.

On the collar front, I now wish I'd made Option 1, which has far more of a pussy bow style collar.  The plus side of the collar on version 2 is that it looks a bit nautical - so a perfect match for my sailor trousers.

The only downside is that with one thing and another, the making of this blouse slipped down my list, and now that it's finished, it's too cold to wear it.  I'll just have to save it for spring.

**Update** I was being extremely thick there, but luckily my readers know how to solve a wardrobe conundrum better than me - I shall, of course, wear it with a cardigan and get some wear out of it before spring. Duh! x

Happy Sunday everybody. x