A dreamy Dashwood make from Kathy @ Sew Dainty

Hi all, it’s Kathy here again.

My Sewisfaction make this time is Spring inspired. I don’t know about you, but I am so ready to move on from Winter clothes and this fabric and pattern were the perfect project with this in mind.

A few weeks ago, I popped along to Sewisfaction to enjoy a little sewing day with Sheona and some of the Sewisfaction blogging team.  As always, it was a lovely day filled with sewing, laughter, tea and biscuits! Whilst I was there, I took the opportunity to have a little browse through all the fantastic fabrics and choose which one I wanted to use to make up my next blogger garment with. Not a quick decision, as you can imagine.

I finally settled upon this stunning rayon from Dashwood. Outstanding quality as you might expect from Dashwood, it has a dark grey background with mustard, white and pink floral details.

There are so many pretty rayon fabrics available at Sewisfaction at the moment, so if you are a big fan of this fabric type I would recommend that you head on over to the website to take a look. Don’t forget to keep your eye on the ‘New In’   section on the website so that you don’t miss out on any exciting new fabrics when they arrive – rayon or otherwise.

The pattern that I wanted to sew was the Jasmine Top from Colette Patterns. I have had this in my pattern stash for ages and I decided that it would look pretty made in this floral fabric. The design is  a pretty blouse which slips over the head (no buttons or other closures), with a choice of collar/bow lengths and sleeve choices.

This is where I must hold my hand up and admit the silly rookie mistake that I made right from the start. I made the size according to the ‘body measurements’ chart on the pattern. I ALWAYS check the ‘finished garment’ measurements against this on the pattern too,  and pretty much always adjust the size that I make based on these measurements, but for some reason this time I just waded straight in and made what I thought (in my head) were the finished garment measurements. There’s a lesson to slow down right there! So unfortunately the finished top is a little on the large size, but nothing that some small adjustments can’t correct. Never mind.

It’s an interesting pattern, and when myself and Sheona were cutting the fabric we were surprised to find that it calls for 2.5 metres of fabric, which is quite a lot for a blouse. The cutting layout soon explained the reason for this, and it is that the main blouse pieces are all cut on the bias (therefore taking up much more fabric than you would normally need) to give a flattering drape to the finished blouse. I’m not sure I’m a big fan of the need for this, especially as there is a vertical seam running down the centre front and centre back of the blouse, but it is certainly different to any other blouse I have ever made.

There are 2 versions of the blouse, and I chose to sew version 2 which has a shorter tie and less gathered sleeves with a notched cuff. I seriously love the shorter length bow that this version has and really like that it threads through a small loop rather than knotting it yourself. The loop is tiny and quite fiddly to sew – in fact there was no way I found I could sew it using the tiny little pattern piece – so I cut out my loop piece a little larger to make it easier to make. I notice that the option is given on the pattern to sew the neck tie in a contrasting fabric, which is a great idea as I admit that my bow does disappear into the background fabric a little.

The sleeves are cute and I particularly like the notched detail on the elbow. I had to take these in a little due to my silly mistake in cutting out the wrong size, but we won’t talk about that will we!

So all in all, after a few little adjustments, I have a lovely blouse. I am so in love with the grey and mustard tones in this rayon and can’t wait to wear it this Spring with my favourite mustard cardigan and gold coloured accessories.

Other blouse pattern suggestions that would work with this fabric might be the Sew Over It Pussy Bow Blouse, or the Grainline Studios Scout Tee. For dress suggestions, what about the Tilly and the Buttons  Seren Dress, or the Nina Lee Kew Dress?

Happy Spring sewing everyone, and I’ll be back again soon,

Take care,

Kathy  Sew Dainty