After seeing so many great Bruyere blouses both in real life and online, I finally decided to make one.
I’m not someone who has the desire to make a button-up blouse. It’s not that I don’t want them – as they’re sorely needed in my wardrobe – but I always seem to be more motivated to sew up a pretty dress instead.
This past fall I hunkered down and stitched one up and I’m oooh sooo glad I did.
This black cotton Bruyere is my wearable muslin – the wearable muslin that gets worn to work quite often! :D
This fabric is in no way forgiving – it’s a basic black shirting that I got at an estate sale that has zero stretch (not even mechanical stretch). As such – the fit would have to be 100% perfect to be wrinkle free. Hence… my fit issues being subtly highlighted by the fabric folds.
This version is very close to being made straight out of the envelope. I have a short waist, and Deer & Doe patterns seem to naturally fit me. The more I work with them, the more I come to love them.
I know I narrowed the shoulders just a hair – but besides that I don’t believe I made any other changes.
When I look at the above image, I’m seeing:
- An armscye curve or height that isn’t 100% correct for me – folds radiating from the armpit to collar
- Bust darts that could stand to be lowered a hair
- Tucks on the bottom portion that aren’t placed right for me.
Looking at the back view, the fit is pretty good.
I’ve heard it on others’ blogs before, but black really is hard to photograph!!
Either my blouse looks nice and saturated and I look like a ghost or the shirt looks grey and dated and I look a relatively normal shade of pale.
A few less wrinkles in the image above… You can see by having changed my stance/posture I can have fewer wrinkles forming at the armscye.
What doesn’t work for me are the box-pleats on the skirt portion of the blouse front. They really puff out and make me look preggers. On my second version (soon to be posted), I moved the pleats further to either side and I made them point to the side seams so that the front area lays more flat (ie less preggers).
This blouse was my first time sewing in a sleeve placket.
I used my featherweight singer to sew up this blouse. The narrow stitching foot gave me a really nice 1/8″ seam guide which made top stitching these sections a breeze.
While I haven’t gotten on board with making more button-up blouses (Archer & Granville), this Bruyere (and my second one to come soon) was one of my favorite makes from the winter and had a constant place in my wardrobe.
Perhaps when the temperature dips down for fall, I’ll get back on the wagon with blouse sewing. :D
In: Sewing
Huh, I was not that interested in this pattern before… apparently I just needed to see it made up in black! It looks great, office-friendly but still unique. Looking forward to seeing your next version. Btw like your haircut/colour as well.
Thanks so much Tamara. :D This blouse does get a lot of office wear, but not as much on the weekends. That’s my time to be free and easy so I’m generally wearing whale print Tee’s – which I don’t think my office would like as much. lol
Your blouse looks lovely! And you look great in it. :-) The dark fabric works really well with your hair color. Looking forward to see your next version!
I have made several blouses and classic men’s shirts and am familar with the slight wrinkles, that go from your armpit to your collar (although yours are really small and hardly anyone will see them. We’re talking super fine tuning here.): they might be originated by the shoulder slope. The pattern’s shoulder line is too straight so the fabric is pulled down on the outer part of your shoulder. The armpit is also affected, since the pattern’s armpits are slightly too high. When I had to deal with this issue, I simply moved the outer point of the shoulder line down a little (0.5-1cm will do) and at the same time moved the whole armscye down by the same amount. This means redrawing the shoulder line with a different slope from the original collar point to your new outer shoulder point and also redrawing the armscye further down. Hope, this helps! :-)
Thanks for this M. I actually always have to add a little height to my armpit as I have a very small narrow shoulder/chest area. I like this idea though. I was pondering those wrinkles again as I was walking to the train today – cause that’s my thinking time – and I was starting to think the winkles weren’t forming for armpit issues exactly. I already made version 2, but I’ll make this tweak on version 3 and see the result. Thanks!
I really like this style – much more interesting than the average button down (which I never wear re: boobs, but also cuz I find them constricting and much of a muchness).