Blue Liberty Blouse

Sometimes I have a certain dessign in mind and I cannot find a pattern that delivers for the life of me. As it was the case with this pattern.
The inspiration came, again, through one of the serials I follow, The Affair:



 When I saw Allison, a character always inspiring in her casual dresses and blouses, I though it was a perfect excuse for  buying some liberty fabric. I bought it at Goldhawk Rd, in a shop where they have some pretty Liberty cotton lawns some pound cheaper. Perfect.

I envisioned a classic shirt with breast side darts and waist shaping. I scanned all my magazines and could not find such a pattern. So, I had to make my own. I used the close fitting bodice as a base, moved the breast dart, added waist shaping at the sides and darts in front and back. I added the buttonstand, constructed a shirt collar with separate stand and adapted the basic sleeve block, adding an opening, narrowing it at the bottom, shortening it to include a cuff. I followed Aldrich's book to make this customed pattern.

That last step was an important mistake. Although I trued all the paper patterns over the dressform and they seemed OK, I never checked the length of the sleeves, and that was fatal, because I realized the sleeves were 10cm short when I tried on the blouse in first fitting. Luckily, Liberty patterning allows for any tricks, and makes them invisible... I had to add a 10 cm rectangle at the bottom of sleeves, and the result ins inconspicuous.

Blunders aside, the result is wonderful. Comfortable, pretty, wearable and practical. I expect to wear it a lot, specially for work. I future renditions of this pattern, I will make sure the sleeves are long enough and maybe not so ruffled at the top.