Great way to Level-Up your Sewing

I was drawn to the Edwige Blouse, from Viki Sews patterns, because of all the little details – mainly the beautiful billowy sleeves, tall cuffs and those self-covered buttons.

Edwige was a challenging sew with lots of new-to-me techniques (e.g. tiny french seams on a 3/8 seam allowance, open pleat at the cuff, burrito-ing the sleeve cuffs). If you like a slow and gratifying sew then I highly recommended this blouse. I don’t know about you but when something is as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside it makes me truly happy.

Sizing – Edwige is supposed to be loose but I found the sizing ran a little too big for me. Based on my measurements, I went with a single size (size 40, Height 1) but once I toiled it I realised it was too big. If I’d have bought the multi-size pattern I would have re-cut the size down but instead I just attempted to adjust it.

Construction – The instructions are ok – not overly detailed but good enough and plenty of photos to guide you. I do encourage you to read through them thoroughly as the construction methods might be a bit different to what you are used to (it was for me!).

Fabric – I used a soft touch crepe which I purchased from Minerva for £4.99 per meter. The colour is very bold (much bolder than I expected) but it handled well. It feels very luxurious and expensive once made into this blouse.

Some tips if you are going to go for it:

• Don’t spend ages looking for 8mm self-covered buttons – 11mm is fine – that’s what I used
• Make sure you give your rouleau loops a good stretch with steam – this will stop them popping open when you wear the blouse
• Read the instructions thoroughly before you start – I didn’t and rushed ahead with the interfacing and missed out on the beautifully neat finish.
• The sleeve cuff is the most fitted part because it goes so high up your arm – so if you are skipping the toile make sure you check the cuff. This blouse is quite loose on me but it only just fits my forearm.

If you want more pictures, and more details on the sizing and adjustments I made, please feel free to check out my blog post – callyonsewing.com

Caroline @callyonsewing