Hello sew-friends! Today, I’m sharing a blouse that I made a number of months ago. I originally imagined taking this blouse with me on a trip to Italy that I had scheduled for early March to celebrate my 40th birthday. That trip was sadly, but necessarily, canceled due to covid-19. When the trip was canceled, my sewing plans were upended as well. This blouse and a coordinating pair of pants (sneak peek in the photos below!) have not been getting the attention they deserved. Despite those delays and disappointment, I know that this blouse will have a prominent place in my wardrobe for many years to come.
The blouse is made using the Morningside Shirt pattern by French Navy Patterns. Last December, I had the great fortune to meet the designer Sarah-May in her home city of Cape Town. I admired the blouse she was wearing and she very kindly gave me this pattern. (Thank you Sarah!)
The pattern is for a shirt or a dress and you can either have a ruffled sleeve or a short sleeve with a cuff. All views have a roomy fit, a narrow collar and a concealed button placket.
I was very nervous to sew the placket because probably about 10 years ago, I had one bad experience sewing a placket. The experience stuck with me to this day! But, I decided that if I just took it slowly that it would be fine. After all, I’ve sewn sleeve plackets successfully and this wasn’t much different. The sewing process for the blouse went very smoothly and I’m very proud of my concealed button placket.
The instructions for this pattern are very thorough with excellent, detailed illustrations. I followed the instructions exactly as written and was very pleased. I give a lot of credit for my successful placket to the instructions.
For the buttons, I dove into my stash and found some sweet, rounded vintage buttons. I’m lucky to have inherited a large collection of vintage buttons. I love being able to use them in my sewing projects, any chance I get. In the photo above, you can see my printable sewing planner in action. I love recording my makes in this planner and being able to go back and see the things I’ve made throughout the year. I have two designs for the planner available in my shop. Links below to check them out.
I made a size M and did a .5” dart-less FBA. I also added 2.5” to the length. I’m 5’11” and my measurements are upper bust 35.5", bust 38.5”, waist 29”, hips 39.5”. Mostly I’m in the size M but my bust falls in a L. The full bust adjustment adds extra room to just the bust area to accommodate. I have a blog post for my Lou Box Top pattern where I show how to do an FBA on a pattern that does not have a bust dart. You can check it out here.
I’m really happy with the sizing and wouldn’t make any adjustments. For most patterns I make a square shoulder adjustment but because this pattern has a yoke over the shoulder, I thought it would probably work fine with my shoulder angle and I think it does. The sizing for this pattern goes up to a 42” bust with a finished garment measurement of 51.5”.
The fabric is a rayon crepe that I bought from Stoff & Stil when I was in Denmark a few years ago. I bought 3 yards of this fabric and was able to make a short Lela Skirt and this top without any fabric magic tricks needed. The fabric is a really nice drapey weight but is a little bit shifty. I had to be very careful when cutting and sewing to keep things on the straight of grain and aligned properly.
While I did receive this pattern as a gift, all opinions are my own. I really do believe that the instructions and pattern drafting are very well done. These days, when I’m not a big fan of a pattern, I just don’t blog about it because I only want to promote patterns that I highly recommend. But this is a pattern that I truly love and am happy to recommend. Definitely check out the French Navy Patterns shop on Etsy. As of writing this blog post, all of the patterns are on sale.
