Blouse from Shkatulka

My latest and even more favourite viscose blouse! I finished my blue starry blouse on Monday, took the pictures on Tuesday and on Wednesday, proudly donned in my new blouse, went downtown, enrolled in a Spanish language course at the Cervantes Spanish Cultural Center (more about this some other time) and then went to my favourite fabric shop in search of more viscose fabric. I bought two remnants at a ridiculous price and immediately began searching for a pattern. I wanted it to be similar to the Burda pattern, but still different. And I found it - a blouse with gathered front from Shkatulka.

Shkatulka is a Russian site with a bunch of sewing patterns in PDF format. Some of the sizes are free for downloading and the other sizes are for sale for about a dollar. I haven't tried the purchase option yet, but it seems similar to all other sites and requires a PayPal account.

However, they had the blouse I liked in Russian size 40 (EU 34 / XS) for free, so I downloaded it. As I mentioned in my previous post, I was up for trying some grading from 34 to 36, so I kept the neckline, the shoulders and the sleeves of the original size and expanded the body by 1 cm (a total of 4 cm) to get to Russian size 42 (EU 36 / S). The site provides a table of measurements, so one can get around the various sizes.

And one more feature - there is a free youtube tutorial on the construction of this blouse! What can I say - I was sold on it from the word go :)

The pattern is a bit more involved than the previous one - this has sleeves with an interesting pleated detail and an opening at the back with a button fastening. The silhouette is more fitted and a bit tailored at the waist.

Again, the main seams - the side seams and the shoulder seams are narrow French seams. The central back seam and the sleeves are standard seams with zigzaged edges. The sleeves and the lower edge are hemmed with double 1.5 cm hem. The neckline is lined with interfacing.

The inside of the blouse. The fabric is gorgeous natural viscose - very fluid and heavy with lots of body. It creases less than the thinner navy viscose with the stars, so one more point in favour of my newest blouse :)

The opening at the back - it turned out more decorative than functional, as I can squeeze my head through the neck opening without unbuttoning the blouse. If I make this pattern again for myself or Gaby, I might omit this detail.