Blouse Burda 129 01 / 2011

I hadn't sewn for three weeks, something unusual for me lately, probably because I was busy knitting. I've noticed that I am a serial hobbyist - if I'm really in the mood for a certain craft, I'm all in and don't have the energy and mojo for other crafts. However, as my piles of fabric keep growing (you know, buying craft supplies is a different hobby :))), I felt an urge to justify my purchases with some dressmaking. And I also had my new stretch twin needles arrive from far-away China and I hadn't tested them yet - so I made a new blouse.

This is one of the Burda patterns for knits I bought last month - blouse 129 from Burdastyle 01 / 2011. The pattern features an interesting square shaped neckline, formed by the elongated back. This piece of the back, which connects with the shorter front, creates the illusion of a bolero and it gave me the idea to color block the pattern - thus I could utilize fabric remnants and have a unique blouse - win win in my book.

For this fotosession I decided to try the culottes look I see everywhere. Erh, not sure I'm the culottes gal, not quite sold on the look.

To create the bolero effect I cut the back straight 5 cm below the arm opening and made the lower part in purple and the upper part in black. In the original design the front has a folded facing, but I decided to omit it - my purple fabric is pretty stable, with very little stretch and definitely did not need any facings. Instead I finished the straight neck line with a band out of the black fabric, thus bringing the two color blocks together.

If I make this pattern again, I will reduce the available smallest size 36 to 34, as I am quite petite and Burda 36 size is a bit big on me in my upper part. I did reduce the width of the front neckline by 2 cm and raised it by 1.5 cm and it is still a bit gaping, so evidently some additional decreasing is still needed.

The back and the front black parts connect under the arms. To finish the neckline I cut 1.5 cm seam allowance, overlocked it and then folded it and finished it with a twin needle. It is not visible on the black fabric, but next time and especially if I was using lighter fabric I would do the same for the seam on the back - one continuous finishing line with the twin needle to further the illusion of a separate bolero, created by the color blocking.

Pattern: Burda 129 01/2011

Fabric: cotton knits, remnants from other projects

Size: 36, modified

Time to make: 2 days