Stormy Sassy Librarian Blouse

My muslin, pre and post FBA

Learn It

This project was made as part of a Craftsy course:
Sassy Librarian Blouse »

Instructions

If you're hourglass shaped, I would very much recommend doing an FBA on this pattern. I'm still not satisfied with the fit, but it looks soooooo much better than my muslin that didn't have an FBA. I feel like this pattern, as drafted, works best for pear-shaped individuals. I say that because I've never needed to do an FBA on a pattern before this one.

Difficulty:

Category: Sewing

Type of item: Clothing

For: Women

Style: Cute, Whimsical, Retro / Vintage

Materials

More Tula Pink Nightshade fabric in "Storm Clouds"

What was your inspiration?

I had acquired some more Tula Pink Stormclouds fabric and I thought it would look cute as this blouse, especially with a suspender skirt I had recently made.

What are you most proud of?

I had to grade the pattern up to a size and 20 (which I had never done before) AND do a Full Bust Alteration (which I had ALSO never done before!). I'm still not satisfied with the fit, but if you look at my muslin picture, you can see how much better the fit looked after the FBA.

What advice would you give someone starting this project?

As I mentioned in the instructions, this pattern seems to be drafted with more of a pear-shaped figure in mind. I have a very proportional hourglass figure and have never needed to do an FBA before this pattern. With that in mind, I wouldn't consider this a "beginner" project unless you are pear-shaped and have a bust smaller than 41 inches. If you have a fuller bust like myself, I would not recommend this unless you are more intermediate in skill level. Two months ago, I would have been totally lost trying to make this pattern fit properly. Pattern issues aside, I did learn a lot from the instruction in the videos and a beginner would definitely benefit from those, but with this specific pattern, it makes things more difficult.

I very much hope Christine and Crafty release a "plus-sized" version of this pattern (I say plus-sized in quotation marks because I don't consider myself to be plus-sized and I think labeling someone that happens to have big boobs as plus-sized is quite ridiculous) because I very much love the design and haven't seen any other blouse patterns that have quite the same aesthetic.