Sewaholic recently released two blouse patterns and this is one of them. The other is the Granville blouse and while I'm planning to sew one soon, the Oakridge is the one I was most excited about because of the bow. I purchased the Art Gallery fabric awhile ago and I knew right away I wanted to use it for this pattern.
I purchased this in PDF format. The pattern envelope says you'll need 3 1/4 yards of 45 inch fabric. I made it out of 2.5 yards.
The blouse is relatively easy to sew but I did get hung up on a few things. The biggest hurdles for me were the neckline, excess fabric pooling in the back and the sleeve plackets.
I cut a size 6 for my muslin. I liked the fit in the chest and shoulders but from the chest down it was too large. I did a swayback adjustment and another muslin but it was still too baggy. I thought the muslin fabric might be a cause of the problem because of the stiffness but when I cut my actual fabric I realized it was just too big. I ended up taking in probably an inch on each side from right under the darts to the hemline. I'm comfortable with the fit now. I think this is supposed to be a looser style.
I then slipstitched the collar along the neckline. It looks neat on the inside but when you button the top button the ties overlap before you tie them. It looks OK after you tie it but it's just a little awkward. If someone else has done this the right way please leave a comment and tell me what I did wrong!
This was my first time sewing a sleeve placket and let's just say I need more practice. It was another part in the instructions where a lot of staring happened. I'm not sure how it's supposed to look but I can almost guarantee it isn't supposed to look like this:
Before you ask, I saw the little X thing done on a RTW button up shirt I own except it's not crooked and wrinkly on that one. I'll keep practicing. When I was sewing this shirt it occurred to me that the thing that used to take me FOREVER was sewing a sleeve in the round. Now I breeze right through that. Sleeve plackets are my new sleeves.
I realize I've complained a lot about this shirt but I actually like it quite a bit. Adding blouses to my wardrobe has been a goal since the spring. I signed up for a Craftsy course to learn to draft my own blouses but was severely lacking in creativity and couldn't come up with a single idea. Thankfully Sewaholic Patterns came to the rescue.
I would like to try this one in a rayon challis to see how the drape affects the back. I have seen more people talking about the Granville than the Oakridge so hopefully more Oakridge blouses start popping up.
