Burdened by Burda Bicycle Blouse

March 7, 2015 by steelyseamstress 2 Comments

When you’re thinking about what to make next, what is it that attracts you to a particular pattern? I’m often inspired by other people’s makes and also, without a doubt, I’m influenced by the photos from the pattern company. The fabric and the model styling the pattern really can be a deciding factor for me.

There are so many fantastic pussy bow blouses I’ve seen in the blogosphere lately. Here are a few examples I’ve admired:

Did You Make That’s dogstooth Pussy Bow Blouse

Evolution of a Sewing Goddess’s spotty blouse

Handmade Jane’s bow blouse

I could have used the Sew Over It Pussy Bow blouse or the new Oakridge blouse from Sewaholic or even a vintage pattern. But no, I didn’t go for those patterns, I decided to go with this pattern from the Burda website. The fabric is funky. The hat and glasses are very chic. Not so sure about the faux snake skin mini and the leopard skin tights, but hey, she’s a cool cat!

I will totally agree that I had just made my life so much harder with this choice. I usually find that the indie sewing pattern companies their instructions very carefully, whereas Burda’s instruction are often scant. But no, I still wanted the cool cat blouse!

Anyway, it wasn’t long after I downloaded the pattern, that the head scratching began. Just a few points that annoyed me about the instructions:

There is a poorly translated sentence -“stitch to one long of the binding stip…”. Yes I know what that means, but a bit of native speaker editing would have been helpful.
There’s mention of views B and C. What happened to A? Presumably you have to buy that separately.
The instructions explicitly state that interfacing is needed, but there’s no instruction for where to use it!
And just to be picky, while I’m at it, a spelling mistake – “right side otu”

In general, I shouldn’t complain too much I managed to sew this blouse, and I’ve been wearing it today. I’m not totally sure that I got the construction as it was intended. The sleeve vents would have remained a total mystery, but for a bit of deductive thinking and a similarly constructed blouse from my wardrobe.

The fabric is a cotton voile from Truro Fabrics and the result of some impulse clicking. Since the instructions didn’t actually describe where to place the interfacing, I decided to use it in both the neck tie and the cuffs. The fabric is semi-sheer, so I used some black polyester organza as the interfacing; not that I knew for sure where the interfacing should be placed. I’m not sure it was required for the neck tie. What do you think? Is that neck tie too stiff?

I also wasn’t sure about the length of the neck tie. With the neck tie in a bow, it looks like the loose ends should be longer. Lori’s version of this blouse really rocks, but she has made her neck ties quite a bit longer. I would have done the same except this idea came to me too late and when I wouldn’t have been able to cut the extra length from the fabric in one piece. So I stuck with more or less the recommended length, plus about 15 cm more.