Tuesday 17 June 2014

When a Belcarra is not a Belcarra

On my quest for a handmade wardrobe, I have had to focus on producing more "cake" rather than "frosting", to quote Tasia of Sewaholic who perhaps brilliantly summed up the trappings of a few of us sewers-it sew easy to be lured into the amazing and beautiful dress patterns that are around. 
Right to the deed- Now, I don't want to mislead you in thinking this is a review for the Sewaholic Balcarra blouse and falsely enticing you into reading this post, but when I made the Butterick 5610, I couldn't help being reminded of it.
So far I've only sewn one sewaholic pattern, the fabulous Gabriola skirt here but I do own a couple of others - the Alma blouse and the Cambie dress.. I just can't wait to get going with them, however, if you've read my previous post here you'll know that it could take a fair while till I get around to these! 
I adore the sewaholic patterns, they have simple clean lines that are all totally wearable on a day to day basis, and the Belcarra beautifully falls into this. 
Yes, or am I barking up the wrong Belcarra! What do you think? 

        


The fabric I used is a lovely light soft cotton, not quite a lawn though, pity the pictures don't show the exact delicate pink colour as the evening sun was pretty bright. (I can sew but can't set up an overexposed camera!)
Just like the Balcarra's subtle shoulder detailing, this blouse has its detailing in the form of  a five pleat yoke, the sixth pleat is created by crossing over the centre front. The sleeves are top stitched - I went round twice rather than using a twin needle so that the underside didn't have the zig-zag understitching. 

Apart from the centre pleat that took a little thinking about, this pattern is incredibly easy and just what I need to reboot my flagging sewing-mo-jo. I cut a straight size 12 out on Saturday night(waiting for the England game!) and put it together in a couple of hours on Sunday evening- 


A friend popped round with a dress she wanted taking-in and saw it on the table "flat-packed" when I ran into her on Monday morning on the school run wearing it, she couldn't believe it!     

As well as being easy to sew, this is a great stash buster-the pattern says 1.20 mt but I reckon you could easily squeeze it out of a meter. 
I can certainly  see me knocking a couple of these up- I quite fancy trying a contrast yolk, which would also be great for using up some of the stash left over/cut off items. 
The other pattern option has four pleats down the centre front - reminds me a bit of the Mathilde blouse  ..non!
                                                                    
Everything about this pattern has big ticks about it- what do you think?



Happy sewing xxx Amanda 

No comments:

Post a Comment