I bought the Anderson Blouse pattern as soon as I received the email from Sew Over It announcing it’s release. I haven’t sewn as much as normal the last few weeks so this has been sewn in small chunks of time but was finally finished yesterday, Sunday, and worn to lunch at my Mom and Dad’s house. I took these photos in my Mom and Dad’s garden; I should have gotten a wider shot so you could see how much neater their garden is than mine, where I normally photograph my makes;)
The fabric used is a gorgeous medium-weight polyester Black and Cream spotted crepe from Minerva Crafts. The fabric has a lot of body and weight, and would work really well for a fitted dress or full skirt. The fabric did fray so I finished all seams on my overlocker. I love the scale of the spots. This fabric was very easy to work with and has a lovely sheen on the right side, which you can kind of see in the photos.
There’s a lot of fabric in this pattern which is emphasised by the heavy fabric. I’m really happy with it, but if you wanted a less substantial looking blouse you’d need to use a lightweight fabric. Minerva allow you to search only lightweight crepes which should be perfect, or of course it would look great in a silk.
I made a straight size 8 and found the fit good for me without changes except at the front cross over. I tried the blouse on with the front pieces pinned in place where they are supposed to overlap and the result was indecent;) I increased the overlap by having the front edges meet the side seams. The result is probably a bit more modest than intended but now means I don’t need to wear a vest underneath / be paranoid about flashing.
I made a couple of other changes to the blouse. I gathered across the full length of the shoulders seams (up to the seam allowance) as opposed to between the notches. I also slightly altered the method for attaching the back neckline band – attaching it using a standard bias binding method.
I used two vintage buttons, purchased in a charity shop, on the cuffs.
Here’s what the blouse looks like untucked. Not too bad, but I prefer it tucked in.
In addition to photographing my blouse, Phil managed to get a few pictures of Rupert (my brother and his partner’s miniature dachshund).
Disclaimer: I was provided with 2 metres of spotty crepe fabric by Minerva Craft; all opinions expressed are my own.