Lucy has sewn this stunning Irma Meadow blouse as a gift for her Mum’s birthday – what a lucky Mum! Handing you over to Lucy to hear all about her process:
“No one does florals quite like Liberty do and Irma Meadow is no exception! Alice’s new colour way of this intricately detailed design features the softest shades of pinks and greens alongside some much punchier shades. I think this gives it a really special dynamic and a true sense of a wildflower meadow. Some of the beautiful flowers featured in Irma are particular favourites of my mum’s so, with her birthday coming up, I decided to use this fabric to make her a special gift.”
“Tana lawn is ideal for making shirts and blouses. It’s wonderfully stable to work with, hardly frays at all and is so light and comfortable to wear, even on the warmest days! I had had my eye on The Zadie Blouse sewing pattern by Sew Over It for a little while now. I felt that this would be perfect in Irma as its large-ish scale print would be properly shown off in the full length sleeves and looser styling. Also, as I was making it as a surprise for someone else, raglan sleeves are a lot more forgiving than trying to fit a set in sleeve without a model!”
“This is an intermediate pattern, featuring a rounded collar and cuffs with plackets, but please don’t let that put you off! I don’t know about you, but when I am dressmaking my attention to detail is generally driven by my sense of urgency to finish and wear the thing! So I am all for changing a tailored cuff to a simple, elasticated band to ease things along. However, this time around, keeping in mind that this blouse was to be a gift (and would also be photographed in close up for this blog!) I decided to follow the pattern’s (lovely and clear) instructions to the letter…sleeve plackets, cuffs and all!”
“I’m very pleased with how this blouse turned out, and mum was delighted with it (I’m hoping she’ll let me borrow it occasionally!). I’m glad I decided not to take any shortcuts, as it did me good to concentrate and pay attention to the small details, and you know what, it went really, very smoothly and didn’t take long to make after all!”
