Belcarra Blouse - So good I sewed it twice!

The newest pattern from Sewaholic Patterns is the Belcarra Blouse, and I had the opportunity to test the pattern before it was released.

The style is a looser silhouette than I usually wear, but what surprised me most about the pattern was how the 2d curved pattern shapes transformed to 3d without needing darts or other fitting techniques. Though it is a loose-fitting style, it works by also being shapely...or making the wearer look shapely!

The size I cut was 12 and this is what usually fits me best in Sewaholic patterns. Sometimes I have to shorten above the waist, but I didn't do that for the Belcarra, as my measurements of the pattern pieces in comparison to my body measurements indicated I didn't need to.

 

 

 

The biggest difficulty I had with this blouse was fabric selection I just couldn't decide what to use. I originally planned on a medium weight black and white cotton gingham but thought that the loose style of the blouse wouldn't be as flattering in a heavier fabric. So I picked Liberty of London cotton voile 'Toria' that I'm delighted with.

 

 

http://sewaholic.net/also-introducing-the-belcarra-blouse/

 

Tasia's advice on choosing fabric for this blouse is spot on - pick something special, because the lack of front and back seams and darts mean that the fabric gets the limelight!! Her Liberty of London version illustrates her advice perfectly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I chose to sew View B mostly because of the tucks in the raglan sleeves. They are such a neat detail on this lovely simple design. As the print on the fabric is so busy, the tuck detail seemed to get lost, so I added some matching janemeans ribbon to the shoulder seam to help draw attention to the tucks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Using the same stitched ribbon as I used to cover the shoulder seams, I repeated the ribbon detail at the hem. I liked the unhemmed length of the blouse, so adding ribbon meant that I could keep most of the blouse length.

 

As the voile fabric is so light weight, I wanted to ensure it would hang well. Another reason for sewing a ribbon hem is that it adds a little extra weight to a fabric like voile.

 

 

 

The second Belcarra blouse was a very quick make-not even a couple of hours! The fabric is also a cotton voile from AnnaMarie Horner. This version came about as a result of #misemademairt / #misemademáirt (general Irish to English translation = Me Made Tuesday). Three of us - also Maeve & MsMcCall - from Ireland have been wearing something we made ourselves for Tuesdays in Feb and March and posting on Instagram. This was my attempt to wear something me-made and green(ish) for St. Patricks Day.

For this version, I slightly adjusted the neckline. The neckline in the pattern pictures seemed wider than I prefer, so I made a simple adjustment by adding an extra seam allowance width to the top of the sleeve pieces and back and front pieces. I also measured the resulting neck opening and compared it to my head measurment to be sure it would fit! The length of the neck binding also needs to be reduced to fit the new neck opening measurment.

 

 

Even though the blouse is a simple style, there are some neat techniques in the pattern. The bias binding is sewn doubled over and this gives a nice flat finish. The sleeve cuffs are also well designed. I didn't compare my arm measurements with the cuff length, before cutting and sewing. The sleeve cuff fits, but I would usually wear it a little looser.

The blouse makes for a very easy-to-wear top and I love the raglan sleeves. Now that I know that the style fits in a flattering way, I would like to try it in gingham, with a bias pocket and tucks on the sleeves forming a neat design with the lines of the gingham fabric.

 

 

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Vintage-Inspired Girl's Raincoat

My daughter needed a raincoat - this is Ireland after all! With the weather forecast promising wet and mild weather here for April, I finished it just in time.

This has been on my to-do list for a while, but needed to be sewn because I only had a metre of the green polka-dot coated cotton from Westfalenstof, barely enough for my 6 year old. As I planned to make a raincoat, keeping the number of seams to a minimum to ensure it would be waterproof was a priority.

This all led me to choose a raglan coat because I love that vintage style and thought it might use less fabric than a coat with regular sleeves.

 

Raincoat with hood (colour is washed-out in this pic

Perhaps I was looking in the wrong places, but finding a modern pattern for a child's raglan-sleeved coat proved impossible. I resorted to Pinning images of vintage raglan-sleeved coat patterns and eventually decided to draft my own. Using Cal Patch's book and my daughters measurements I had no problem with the front and back pieces, but got stuck on the sleeves. Should they be in one or two pieces, should I draft following Aldrich or Armstrong? ...... Stuck .... until I saw that Sew Magazine (April’13, issue 46) had a pattern for a child's raincoat, age 2-4, with ...... raglan sleeves! The magazine also has 2 pages, 38-39, of helpful information for sewing with waterproof fabrics. It took a bit of work, but grading up raglan sleeves, proved easier than drafting from scratch.

Of course the sleeves are not perfect, but it's a wearable raincoat, and I really couldn't wish for more than that with a first effort at drafting, and not even sewing a muslin!

The colour combinations of pink and green really appeal to me so I added cuffs in a coated cotton from Hilco via Dotsnstripes. I added a little label from Farbenmix, just for fun!

With all my emphasis on the sleeves, I nearly forgot to mention that I drafted the hood from scratch, using Aldrich. It could be a little bigger, but fits and I was so pleased that I had enough fabric left for it.

There is a general theme of nearly running out of fabric throughout this post, and so it is for the green cotton lining fabric that I bought locally - didn't have enough for the sleeves, so I used a different cotton for them.

This is a picture of the inside, which also shows the zip cover/placket at the centre front which I drafted separately. I used a zip from an old raincoat of my daughters and the Velcro was leftover from my Minoru.

Not having consulted with my daughter on the design or the fabrics, I asked her if there was anything she wanted to add - her request was for pockets (for what is now an obvious reason!). So after checking my Pins for inspiration, I went with patch pockets.

She also picked the ribbon type and colour for the hanging loop and the zipper pull - details that are so tiny hat they could be missed, but are important to her. The colour of the ribbon came up blue in the picture, but is a purple stitched ribbon from janemeans, which picks up a purple in the lining. (And most recently seen threaded through lace by Ann on The Great British Sewing Bee!)

Unlike my Minoru, I didn't tape any seams in this coat so it remains to be seen how much rain it will keep out. Of course I don't intend to let my daughter out in a downpour to test it out, much as she'd probably love that!

 

 

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