If you are familiar with the British series -The Fall – starring Gillian Anderson you must have seen her iconic blouses from this series. I just love them. As you can imagine, when Lisa Comfort from Sew Over It created a pattern with the same style, I was right there getting the PDF pattern.

It was easy peasy to get the pattern online and have it printed. It took me longer to decide what fabric to use with it. I am pretty bad, when it comes to matching patterns to fabrics I have. I always end up buying more. For this one I wanted to use some Liberty fabric, but  the sensible side of me said maybe I should test  it first , see how it looks on me. It could have proven an expensive endeavour, otherwise.

I managed to bag about 1.75 m of a end of roll from the now famous local Abakhan, in their preview Winter sale. I only paid for it less than £2. As you can imagine, no lost sleep over this, if it turned out to be a disaster.  I don’t know what type of fabric it is but I know its not a natural fibre. Its a very fluid fabric, so to be able to work with it, I cheated a little and used liquid fabric stiffener before I started  with it.

Since making the Ultimate Wrap dress, I knew that I have to raise the bust by about 3 cm. I also decided to raise the hem by about 5 cm. While tracing my pattern pieces I did just that.  Being a simple design, I do  not have much to say about the construction. The instructions are pretty straight forward and easy to follow. I did messed up a little  when I added the buttons, because I added the back of the sleeve on top of the front,  which now I call a design feature. LOL.  Oh, and the buttons are part of the prize I won on a draw hosted by Amity from Lolita Patterns a few years ago. I still had two left after making my Sugar Plum.   On my test version I did not add any buttonholes. I started making them. Failed!  You cannot,  see the thread – which I left in – still there trust me.I almost ruined the blouse, so I decided to add the buttons on knowing that I can slide my hands in an out easily. Design feature, remember.

Love the way you  get the front facing to fold in and no stitching on the outside and on the inside the finish is pretty invisible as well. The pattern requires some hand stitching. By now I am a convert! I still don’t like too much, but I like the finish that can be achieved with it.

For my second make of this blouse. I decided to use a Liberty Tana lawn cotton. It all went without a hitch and it was finished in no time. I even got the buttonholes in it as well. But again placed the button hole on the wrong side  of the sleeve! But like I said before, it is a design feature! Looks like it was meant to be like that! Think I might make a trade mark form it! 

Now for the mixed feelings. They have nothing to do with the pattern design or the style of it! For me the blouse its not very versatile. I have to wear it with high waist skirt/ trousers or in my case even my drindl dress that I made (I will blog about it soon).  This is because if I raise my arms and wearing normal or low waist skirts/trousers I am flashing my mid section, which in my world is a NO NO! Gone are the days of my youth when it might have been ok! Not do I have the perfect body for such flashing.   I discovered that this sort of blouses suit me better in solid colours and in fluid fabrics as well. Otherwise I look like I am being overwhelmed by the pattern on the fabric.  If I am making it again I will also lengthen it to the original hem. Then I’d be able to wear it with lower waist garments  and not show everyone else my waist. It will also stop me from being apprehensive ,while wearing it.

in the end it was a bit of a disaster, when it comes to the Liberty fabric I used. But I am hoping that once I wash it a few more times the fabric will become more fluid. That’s  what someone told me about the Liberty Tana lawn cottons. We shall see! In this case me favourite top is the first one I made, the purple one. I will get more wears from that one.

So I wore it on Christmas day! Hence the Tree in the picture. Have you spotted my shoes yet? I organised the whole Christmas outfit around them. LOL

Here is a close up:   Have you ever made any garments to match any of your favourite shoes?