Pattern Review - Nina Lee, Bloomsbury Blouse

Hello Sewers!

Here I am bringing you my latest make, Nina Lee - Bloomsbury Blouse!

I have been seeing lots of people wearing floaty, frilly, white dresses and shirts recently and what with this incredible summer we're having it was time for me to get on and make my Bloomsbury Blouse. With inspiration from Nina's own version and the fabric series from The Stitch Sisters I decided to make mine in a swiss dot bought from Minerva Crafts and lined in a plain white cotton bought from Walthamstow market.

I really enjoyed making this and took my time handling the delicate fabric. I would definitely say this pattern is better suited for an intermediate level sewer as it has some complex elements such as narrow hems on the frills and gathering. I bought a narrow hemming foot which helped massively with this! It did take some getting used to but after some practice tries I got the knack of it and the finish is lovely! I would highly recommend purchasing a rolled hem foot for this project.




Vintage buttons from my partners Nan's house.


I really took my time making sure the inside was just as beautiful as the outside

I had a couple issues with the pattern because the sizes were not labelled on each pattern piece so you need to check the key to know which dotted line to cut on but then the same kind of line is used twice. So I wanted to cut out size 8 but the size 18 used the same style dotted line which was usually fine as I could tell just from the size of it whether it was the 8 or not but in a couple of instances the lines crossed and cut on the wrong line. Especially on the bodice neck line and the collar pieces.




During sewing the collar wound up being 2 inches too long and I think I had cut out the size 18 rather than the 8 but it was easily fixed by just cutting off the excess.

I finished all the seams with an overlocker and I'm really happy with neat finish I achieved with this.

It's the perfect blouse for this hot summer weather and I'm excited to layer it up with my other me made garments this autumn.

Happy sewing everyone!

Liz



Location: London, UK

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