Early Summer Blouse

Monday I received a package of beautiful fabric from Fabric.com. I have been rather tired this week, still not feeling up to much after my sore throat and stuffy nose took off last week, but I still had to do a bit of sewing.

Modeling a new blouse 

The pattern for this blouse is from a Danish book containing sewing and knitting patterns for children’s wear. It’s the “Sy og Strik Børnetøj 4-10 år” by Ulla Welinder (Sew and Knit Children’s Wear 4-10 years). This is the blouse pattern on page 94, which uses shirring at the neckline, sleeve edges, and waist line. I hadn’t tried shirring before, but it went fine after I checked a few tutorials on the internet.

I really like the look of the blouse, but to me the pattern does have a few weaknesses, like the fact that the neckline opening is very wide before you start shirring, so even though the shirring gathers it up, it’s still totally expandable – which may look cute, but I have yet to see if it works alright on a lively 4-year old. For some reason my version of the blouse looks a lot shorter than the one showing in the book, even though I added a few inches to the pattern. I triple checked that I traced the right one, which according to the instructions I did, but I would still make it longer if I were to make it again – the shirring at the waist has a tendency to pull it up a bit. I love this fabric combo, and there was even more fabulousness in the package – can’t wait to use it!

My conclusion is that I love the look and colours of this blouse, but it’ll be far more useful when we get some warm temperatures!

17 comments

  1. Helinä says:

    I know the feeling that even if you are sooo tired and weak you have to sew, at least few pieces together or some detail. And when you can do that it makes you feel much much better :). We sewing-addicts are so weird …
    The both blouse and the model are beautiful! And the fabrics looks so nice together!
    Have a great weekend 🙂 !

  2. Jeannine says:

    Let’s not even mention the word “sick” or “flu” for the matter. I love the blouse and the fabric combination. I also love the neckline. Sometimes blouses are so high on the little ones. I like the the waistband effect too. Very nice Astrid. Cannot wait to see what you do next.

  3. Maria says:

    Such a lovely blouse and the colours look great on your fairhairded daughter. Neckline opening is a bit wide, maybe the pattern works better with a little thinner fabric? Then you could gather up the necline more. Although those lightweight cotton fabrics are very hard to find these days. Anyways, this blouse will be great in spring/summer.

  4. Yvonne says:

    The fabrics look fabulous together! Lovely blouse for a gorgeous girl.

    For some strange reason, bloglines has not been updating your feeds for me. And here I was wondering why you were so quiet!

  5. Anne Dorte Johanson says:

    Hej Astrid

    Skøn bluse i dejlige farver. Jeg kender godt bogen og mønstret og havde faktisk lidt samme problemer som dig, jeg måtte feks også forlænge det. Tak for linket til fabric.com. Det er da en dejlig butik.

    mvh
    Anne Dorte

  6. Marina says:

    Din evne til at sammensætte farver og mønstre er fantastisk og din datter er simpelthen så smuk på hver eneste billed du tager af hende.

  7. Ria says:

    Here’s a message from one blogger to another (yess! I just wrote my first post as I promised after winning the bib): I love the blouse. She looks sooo pretty.

  8. Astrid says:

    Melanie – same here – those dots from Amy Butler tend to add a lot! Thanks! 🙂

    Helinä – LOL, you’re so right! Thanks! 😉

    Jeannine – thanks for your sweet comments! Looking forward to spring and less sickness right… 😉

    Saras – thank you! 🙂

    Dana – mimick away – I would be proud! Thanks! 😉

    Maria – the pattern is actually meant for a very light quality fabric, so that might be it – however, it would still be totally expandable, so I’m not sure it would solve my problem. Thanks! 🙂

    Yvonne – hope it’s working now, then? And thank you! 😉

    Amy – thank you! 🙂

    Anne Dorte – tak skal du have! Det er godt at høre, at det ikke kun er mig – jeg har virkelig genlæst instruktion og tjekket mønster til hudløshed. Den er nu ok – men jeg lagde altså også en del længde til. Ja, Fabric.com har nogle rigtig dejlige ting! 🙂

    Marina – hvor er du sød! Tak skal du have! 😉

    Mirre – thanks! 😉

    Ria – from one blogger to another – thanks! 😀

  9. Jeannet says:

    Hej Astrid.
    Jeg synes godt nok også at mønstret var noget kort, så jeg har også forlænget det en del.
    Men den er yderst feminin til de små piger og lidt anderledes når man syer smock i taljen.
    Super sød sammensætning af stofferne.
    HVad er din erfaring med at få varer hjem købt i USA. Er det dyrt med shipping?
    Er nemlig meget fristet på at købe noget over there da der er så mange lækre webshops?
    Hi from Jeannet

  10. Astrid says:

    Jeannet – tak skal du have – det er nu meget rart, at jeg ikke er den eneste, der har haft problemet med længden – så er det ikke bare mig, der er skør… 😉 Jeg synes ikke, at det er så dyrt at købe hjem fra USA. Hvis man køber fra Fabric.com f.eks. så kan man få 5 yards (afhængigt af stofkvalitet) (1 yard = ca. 90 cm) sendt for omkring $16 (= ca. 93 kr.). Holdt op imod at flere stof-shops i Danmark tager omkring 75 kr. for at sende, og at stoffet samtidig er en del dyrere, så synes jeg at det er ok. Jeg giver som regel omkring 300 kr. for en pakke med 5 yards. Så kast du dig bare ud i det! 🙂

    Fiona – Thank you, you’re so kind! 😉

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