As part of my sewing course, I decided to make a blouse/top I designed earlier this year. The idea is that this will be a loose-fitting blouse with decorative seams to make it look like the garment has pockets and a placket (the strip that usually holds the buttons/button holes, this is not shown in the illustration):
I drafted the loose-fitting bodice (?) from ‘Metric Pattern Cutting for Women’s Wear, 6th Edition’ by Winifred Aldrich to my own measurements. I then made it out of calico to see how it would look. Note that I made long sleeves but didn’t attach them as I knew as soon as I made them that they were too tight-fitting. For now, I also skipped the front placket to save on time, as I first wanted to get everything else to fit right:
I found it challenging to insert the faux pockets as you can see by the puckering around the corners:
I plan to do some exercises inserting squares before making the next toile.
For some reason the top is too narrow on the hips/bum, I don’t know why as I haven’t lost much weight since altering my dress form to my own size (just 1-2 kg weight loss).
I made alterations to the pattern:
- I added about 3-4 cm in the bust (in what would be the side seam if this top had any (it doesn’t, it’s one continuous piece)).
- I added about 5-6 cm in the hip (in what would be the side seam).
- The arm hole is now larger, and I will also make the sleeve wider. I also don’t want a long sleeve for this anyways, so I am shortening the sleeve to about elbow length.
- I’ve lengthened the front by 3.5 cm to close the gap between the two collar pieces. Just like with the faux pockets, the faux collar will be inserted into the fabric of the top.
- The back will close with a partial zip from collar to about halfway down the back.
Stay tuned for my second toile :).
Update: I’ve finally finished the second toile. It’s not perfect as it is quite tricky to get the pieces inserted without any pulling etc, but I am fairly happy with how it turned out (I used black thread so that the seams stand out more):
