Heather: Bank Holiday Botanical Button Back Blouse

We've been enjoying a spot of sunshine here in Lincoln (between the thunderstorms) so when I picked up a metre of this beautiful botanical print linen/viscose mix fabric from the Craftea Sewing Bee Shop last week I decided to top up my summer wardrobe, with the added challenge to make myself to make something other than a dress, for a change!

Seeing as I don't often make anything other than dresses, I was lacking a suitable pattern in my stash so I dug out the pattern from my custom fit blouse, made back in February, and decided to adapt it for a summer version. I removed the sleeves and narrowed the shoulders by an inch, widened the neckline and split the back panel down the centre, adding a button channel to make things interesting!

The print on this fabric is huge- the detail you can see above is a good handspan wide- and it also runs in two different directions. This would be ideal for a shift dress where the whole pattern can be shown off, but in the interests of sticking to my plans I set about making the most of the detail for my blouse.  

Pattern match through the button channel on the back.

I started by cutting two panels for the back, paying extra attention to the pattern match over the button channel. I carefully placed the front pieces to have a centre front detail and cut two side panels to complement the design.

Aren't these the prettiest facings?

As my previous pattern had sleeves and a collar, I didn't have any existing facings for my new blouse, so I drafted some from the fabric scraps. The inside of this blouse is as pretty as the outside!

Here's a pic of the back of the blouse. Despite measuring thrice, I somehow miscalculated on the button channel at the back and, in order to ensure the pattern still matched, I had to use a very narrow button channel through the back. After wearing the blouse for a day the linen had started to lose its firmness, so I had a bit of a rethink later on, stitching up the centre back, adding "fake" button detail down the new seam and inserting a side zip instead. No one will ever know...

Me with Mum's prize Dahlias.

Despite a few tweaks required after the first wear, I'm absolutely thrilled with the result of this top, and I should be able to wear it with jeans on those stormy days too. I'll definitely be making a few more tops in future.

Enjoy your Bank Holiday weekend! 

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The fabric used in this post was kindly provided by Fabric Corner Lincoln, based at The Craftea Sewing Bee Shop, 22-24 Melville Street Lincoln, and at Lincoln's Historic Central Market.