I knocked up this blouse a couple of months ago, but stalled on blogging about it because I knew another would be inevitable. Now the second is complete, it's time I shared my new loves with the world!
Pattern:
I'm not even going to pretend that I'm not deep in the middle of a major ruffle obsession. When I first saw the
Republique du Chiffon Suzon blouse pattern, my heart skipped a beat. However, I didn't buy it immediately because RDU don't offer a PDF version of this pattern (my preferred type of pattern to buy), and at the time the English print version was out of stock on their site. Eventually I just couldn't take it any more, and I sourced a copy of the paper pattern from UK online fabric and haberdashery shop
Dragonfly Fabrics (although it's is currently out of stock on their site).
To me, this pattern is near-perfection. The proportions and position of the ruffle are spot on, and I love how the width narrows a little towards the centre front. The collarless neck band sits so nicely, and I love the fit of the body of the blouse; it's loose and comfortable, but the bust darts prevent it from looking formless.
I'd seen on the RDC site that they had drafted a free downloadable long sleeve pattern piece for this blouse. I decided some sleeves of some description would be a useful addition to get more wear from my blouse, but I wasn't a massive fan of the traditional-looking, full-length, cuffed shirt sleeve design. Instead, I used the sleeve head from the RDC download so I knew it'd fit into the armhole, and frankensteined it with the pattern piece I used for my
remade denim Tova top.
This isn't my first Republique du Chiffon/Atelier Brunnette project combo. Remember my
tragic Areli top fail? Although that project didn't work out, I wasn't put off from combining these two French companies' products again (and then later, again). I got hold of more of the Atelier Brunette Bye Bye Birdy cotton cambric (which basically feels and behaves just like lawn) from Fabric Godmother, this time
in black (they also still have the gold version I previously used, as well as pale blue, terracotta and navy). The printed origami bird shapes really pop on this colour way, don't they?
As with my Areli top, working with this fabric was super easy and really enjoyable. Having googled other people's versions of the Suzon blouse, I came to the decision that this project best suited, and deserved, self-covered buttons. So even though I HATE making them (yes, yes, I know there are places that will do it for you, but who has that level of patience to wait?) and my ratio of successful/fail covered buttons is about 2:1, I did it.
Version 2:
So here she is, hot off the sewing machine! Seeing as the weather is hotting up, and let's face it, I probably don't need two of virtually the exact same garment, I decided to go for the original sleeveless style for this one. Prior to finishing this second version, I only owned
one sleeveless top which I wore a lot last summer. Aside from making this version sleeveless, the only other change I made to the pattern was to extend the ruffle piece by about 12cm in total to make it a little fuller.
I saw
this Atelier Brunette Moonstone viscose at Fabric Godmother when I helped out at their open day a couple of months ago. I hadn't intended to come away with any blouse fabric, but whilst cutting lengths of it for shoppers that day, I really fell in love with it. I feel that the print design and colours are way classier than what I'd usually go for, plus it's a breakaway from my usual black/navy/white/red/mustard colour palette, but tonally it's similar to navy so not really a massive departure I guess.
I have very little experience of sewing with tricksy viscose, so I really took my time cutting and stitching it to minimise the slipping and fraying. Although it creases if you so much as blink in its direction, I love how the ruffles fall in the viscose. Plus, the slinkiness feels so nice against the skin, I can't wait for the next really warm day to take it out for a spin.
