Wednesday 13 August 2014

Minerva Bloggers Network - the Russian Dolls Blouse

For this month's Minerva project, I decided on something small and sweet, namely McCall's 6020, version C.

Version C in white (top)
On the recent Minerva meet-up, I admired all of the cute little prints they had in stock, particularly this one:


And so I turned it into this:



The blouse was pretty simple to put together, with a some bust darts and little tucks at the waist, front and back, for shaping. The trickiest part was the unusual front closure, which called for lots of clipping to produce these crisp right angles:





The sleeves went in really well - the fabric has a tiny bit of natural stretch, so they eased in without the usual puckering and gathering:


I used a catch-stitch to hold the sleeve hem in pace - you can just see a few of the stitches in the picture above.

I can already tell that there's going to be one thing that will drive me mad when I wear this blouse - the collar. The design pretty much relies on interfacing and gravity for it to stay in place, but of course as you move, it moves. I just know I'm going to be fiddling with it constantly!


But on the whole I'm pleased with how flattering this design is - it makes my waist looks freakily small in these pictures!


To finish, I added 3 little red buttons:


And that's it! Just in time for a short break I've got planned in Budapest at the end of the  month, where there are Russian Dolls everywhere you look (don't know why...)

See you soon!




8 comments:

  1. Lovely blouse and print. It was great to be able to see the fabric in person.
    Have a lovely break.

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  2. So cute! What a lovely pattern.

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  3. What a lovely blouse, I love the style, the placket and collar are great. And what's not to love about the fabric - Russian dolls for the win! Lynne.

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  4. So cute!! There's tonnes of dolls in Cornwall too for some bizarre reason - in every town!

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  5. I loved Budapest! Have a great time, don't forget to pack a bathing suit. And I love your blouse.

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  6. Charity Shop Chic19 August 2014 at 13:06

    Oooh pretty! The fabric is adorable. Another success for you :)

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  7. I loved this so much that I had to hunt down the pattern. Yay, Etsy! Thanks so much for sharing this -- I'd say it's darling but it weighs so heavily on the cool side that I shouldn't use such a dainty word.

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  8. Oh so incredibly cute. Love the neck closure x

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