The pattern

Jasmine blouse by Colette Patterns.

This blouse in cut on the bias and has no closures. The top is shaped with bust darts and seams at the center front and center back.

I made version 2, the one with a shorter contrast collar, in a size 10, as usual for me with Colette patterns.

 

Fabrics

• For the collar : it’s the same red microfiber as in my red Sencha.
• For main fabric : I’ts a lightweight and soft Indian cotton, bought in Delhi, in a Kilol shop. The stripes on the fabric were hand block printed. There are some imperfections but nothing too dramatic. (I have some pics of hand block printing on my French blog : Tissus Indiens.)

Oh course the purpose of using stripes for this blouse, cut on the bias with center seams, is to create a chevron effect.

“Hand block printed” is nice but don’t expect the stripes to be really straight. This, plus the fact that some stripes are in groups of 4 and other of 5, made cutting the pattern to get the stripes to match at centers, a challenge.  

To achieve it, I laid down the pieces on the fabric differently from what is suggested in the instructions. Here are pictures of how I did it, for those interested (clic to enlarge) :

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Adjustments

Almost nothing ! The bias cut is great for that ! Especially at the back where the center seam allows for the top to skim nicely over the curves of the back.

• Bust darts moved up by 1cm and that’s all for the adjustment.

Design wise, it’s pretty obvious, I think :

• No sleeves ! I wanted to finish the armholes with bias binding so I cut out the seam allowance there. I thought I might have to raise the armhole but it looked ok : no bra showing !

 

My misadventures

The very small tube that needed turning out to create the loop to keep the collar in place. It was just impossible for me to do it following the pattern instructions. I either didn’t understand something or I’m just not good at it. So I did it by hand… I had forgotten how it’s easiest sometimes to simply sew by hand !

The bias on the armholes : I checked twice that their stripes were in the same directions for both armholes… And I messed up ! …And I didn’t do anything about it.

Finishes

I didn’t finish the seams inside the blouse. No, I did not forget, It’s just that fabric cut on the bias doesn’t unravel.

I didn’t use facings to finish the neckline, I used bias instead following the instructions of this great tutorial : Jasmine bias bound neckline. And I found that it’s a cleaner finish than a regular facing, and easier to wear too.

I wanted to finish the armholes with a red bias binding, the one I used to replace the facings, but this red was too different from the one on the collar and the one on the stripes. It’s ok inside the neckline because it doesn’t show too much but it bothered me at the armholes.  So I made my own bias binding using the main fabric.

Conclusion

I’m really happy with the matching of the stripes at the centers ! It was a bit frighting at the beginning but, as it’s often the case with sewing, it’s not that difficult when you take your time.

The pattern is fast and easy to sew. The only thing that you really need to be careful about, to get a good result,  is the collar and matching the notches.

I find that the no sleeves version of the Jasmine is great for a fast and stylish tank top.

I will make regular versions, with sleeves, for this autumn and next spring because these are really cute !

Photos

These colours are hard “to get” in pictures (for me anyway), the truest shades are the ones on the loop picture above.

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