Pattern Review ~ Sencha Blouse from Colette Patterns
Kathie’s back with another great review of a Colette Pattern. We absolutely loved her Macaron Dress and today’s Sencha Blouse also has that great “modern vintage” look. Learn more about Kathie in her introduction, and find her at Ramonster and Future Craft Collective. Kathie’s in the midst of writing a book with her Future Craft Collective partner Bernadette that will be out early 2011! Today she’s giving away the grey Sencha Blouse (below) at the Ramonster blog, so head over to win and then come back to enjoy her pattern review.
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Pattern Sencha Blouse from Colette Patterns |
| Description | |||
| From the booklet: Simple, versatile blouse perfect for creative embellishment, with deep tucks at the front and back waist for a loose but curvy shape great for tucking in. | |||
| Materials | |||
| Scissors, pins, yadda yadda, all the basics plus get ready to bust out that hand sewing needle, my friends, because this pattern asks us to (gasp) HAND SEW A HEM!!! Heavens. | |||
| Fabric Recommendations | |||
| Colette recommends “lightweight fabrics such as silk or rayon crepe, silk charmeuse, silk habotai, jaquard. Medium weight fabrics such as cotton poplin or light twill.”
I threw caution to the wind (that’s just how I roll) and went with a lightweight linen. I know what you’re thinking, “That girl is cray-cray! Linen? Is there NOTHING she is unafraid to try? I am in awe and utterly debilitating admiration of her willingness to push the boundaries of her, and by doing so OUR, collective creative consciousness.” Well, as for all of that, all I can say is, YOU’RE WELCOME. And also that linen wrinkles very very easily. I chose grey linen because i was wanting to honor the simple elegance of the design by using a simple and elegant fabric that would let the pattern do it’s own talking. And also because I had it on hand. And also because I am told by friends who know things that grey is what all the cool kids are wearing. But mostly because of that elegance thing I was yapping about before.
Front detail. |
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| Overall Design |  |
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| Lovely and classic and simple. Simple being the key phrase here. Simple is a thing I struggle with in my own design work and yet I am unceasingly in awe of and in love with it. The Sencha is another lovely Colette take on vintage styling. And as with almost every vintage or vintage-style pattern I’ve ever worked with, they are designed for women with, how you say, AMPLE JUNK IN THE FRONT? AKA: Ladies who have graduated from the junior department as far as bra size is concerned. Knowwhatimean? I am not that lady. We will leave it at that. Except to say that this blouse, as with almost every outfit I’ve ever worn*, would look awesome with boobs. *Aside from the holy triumvirate of sports bra, dolphin shorts and knee socks- that, I can totally rock. You think I’m kidding. |
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| Written Instructions |  |
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| In my humble opinion, Colette has mastered the art of the domestic pattern. Two words: PATTERN PORN. Starting with their website and continuing on with their packaging and presentation, through their written instructions and diagrams…. For those of us raised on 1970’s era simplicity patterns, where you SO WANTED to be inspired by looking through those big fat pattern books, but you couldn’t help but wonder how on God’s great earth a pattern company couldn’t manage to sew up samples of their own product that didn’t look like THEY’D BEEN SEWN AT HOME FROM A PATTERN? Can I get an amen? Anyway, I find Colette patterns to be the salve for the open wound of bad pattern presentation and packaging that I was raised on. (A nod here to Burda. While not exactly fashion-forward, at least they made my 16 year old self feel edgy simply by asking me to add my own seam allowances. Ah, the sweet taste of dangerous European lawlessness.)
Back detail. But looks and packaging aside, the written instructions are also clear and simple. granted, this pattern is pretty durn straight forward and uncomplicated, but I’ve sewn on other Colette patterns and found them all (okay, both) to be well written. |
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| Diagrams / Images | |
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| There is almost a 1:1 visual diagram to written instruction ratio which, for visual folk like m’self, is helpful. |
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| Pattern Pieces | |
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The Sencha pattern comes with three variations. There is one back piece, three different front pieces (for the three variations) and facings to match. And a tie, for the variation with the tie. Totally clear and simple.
Front detail on dress modification, with tie. |
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| Overall Level of Difficulty | Easy |
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| Tips + Modifications |
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| Colette seems to have written their patterns with the assumption that many of their sewists will be working on domestic machines and not have access to a serger. While I think that that is a wise assumption for a pattern company to function from, I also feel that there are enough home sewists who do use sergers that there might be some nod given in the instructions for serging vs. straight stitching. Colette patterns are written assuming you will not be serging, which while it is easy enough to adjust this simple pattern into a serged seam pattern, I was surprised that they didn’t offer any seam treatment options at all. Personally, I can’t really hang with a raw edge. Even simply using pinking shears on a seam allowance before pressing it open scratches a certain itch for finishing that I seem to need to have scratched.
Pinking the shoulder seam. Another adjustment I made the second time I sewed the pattern was that they ask that you sew the side seams of the shirt up before turning a tiny 1/4” hem on the ends of the sleeves. A simple adjustment that would have absolutely no ill effect on the construction of the garment would be to flip the order of those two instructions and turn the 1/4” sleeve hem first while the garment is flat, then stitch the side seams up. I also chose to add a strip of interfacing to the area in the back where the buttons (in my case, snaps) are placed for stability. And lastly, apparently the folks at Colette think we’ve got nothing better to do than hand sew not only the sleeve hem (which, okay, I admit- looks AWESOME when hand sewn. Delicate, organic….. Just lovely and worthy of the precious additional time taken away from Facebook…) but also the back opening hem. DON’T BE FOOLED. You can totally machine sew this hem and you will do no harm to the integrity of your blouse. Do it. Break a rule. Go crazy.
Hand-stitched sleeve hem. Modifications: Instead of the sew-on snaps and/or buttons that the pattern recommends for the back opening of the garment, I went ahead and used pearl snaps. I have a giant industrial snap setter that makes using snaps…. wait for it…… A SNAP (harhaaaaahrararhahahahaaa i’ve been holding that one in FOR YEARS), so basically I haven’t sewn on a button since I got it. (Can you say lazy? Shhhh…. Don’t say it.)
Back with pearl snaps. This pattern would look awesome, however, with some old skool covered buttons. It’s beggin’ for them. The pattern description states: “Simple, versatile blouse perfect for creative embellishment…” Which kind of makes you feel like a total loser if you opt to not get all up the the creative embellishment department. This, my friends, is a slippery slope and an area where I have the tendency to be a little, shall we say, heavy handed. I’m proud to say that thanks to a sharp and discerning eye (also known as procrastination and deadlines), I think I managed to keep the addition of a bit of hand embroidery firmly in the tasteful department. I’ll just have to work out my desperate-need-for-attention via overworking-textiles-till-they-die elsewhere.
Embroidery detail. The other modification I decided to try was to make this blouse into a dress just by adding 8 1/2 inches to the bottom. it kinda worked in translation, although had I the option of doing it all over, I would have gone with another few inches on the length. I’m a fan of seeing all these current cute-as-kitties shorty short dresses….. ON OTHER PEOPLE. *coughthunderthighscough*
Dress modification. Anyway, it was an easy modification. When cutting out the pattern I just added the (not enough) inches and curved the bottom in a bit. Voila.
Shirt to dress. |
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| Conclusion | |||
| Pattern porn + sweet vintage styling = utter satisfaction (with a french accent for dramatic flair, if you please.) Five stars!! (Insert fireworks and tearjerking classic country anthem here.) | |||
27 Responses to “Pattern Review ~ Sencha Blouse from Colette Patterns”
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Ah.. I would love to see how this really does make up for those of us gifted with boobs-a-plenty. While I groove on what you are saying about there being room for them I do suspect that given the high neck it might not be flattering. Highnecks can really be a death knell for those with big uppers… makes us look even bigger.
But.. LOVE the linen and you have very cute thighs.. Great review!
Maddie
That turned out lovely. I love the fact that you added the extra inches to make a shirt dress. Genius.
great job! and I love the dress variation, although I would need to add substantially more than 8 inches to be able to wear it as a dress. I do have “junk in the front” so I look forward to trying this out.
one question. I thought the buttons up the back might be a bit of trouble for dressing. Any thoughts on that?
That is cool, love how you made shirt to dress. Thanks for the review.
Beautiful. It reminds me of a couple of blouses my grandmother wore with her matching shoes and handbag. She was always so put together.
rebecca:
the snaps (or buttons) up the back are a wee bit awkward, but doable. especially if you happen to have a nine year old daughter who never leaves your side and who still thinks helping you get dressed is the bee’s knees.
kathie
I wonder if it would be easy enough to modify the neckline a bit more to make it more flattering to busty babes. (Or even slicing it down enough that you could put in some hooks and make a nursing top.) I couldn’t find enough tops that were flattering on the huge nursing cans AND were usable for nursing.
Thanks for the review. Your shirt and dress turned out great.
love this review – thank you. I have been eying up Sencha and other Collette patterns for awhile. I think this might have been the inspiration I need to take the plunge!
Great review! However, as someone who doesn’t wear a “bra” (the department stores call what I wear a “bralette,” which their upscale code for “flat as a pancake”), I don’t think I’ll make this.
I already have this pattern, but had to read your HILARIOUS review. Thanks for making me laugh at the end of a long workday!
Great review!
Love it! I love how you added the length, looks totally cute, and I do believe you can pull it off. You just gotta wear it with confidence. 
i’m a solid B cup, and have only made the parfait dress from colette patterns (so far! mwahaha…), but after doing a small bust adjustment, found it fitted beautifully. don’t be scared! you too can wear their pretty pretty patterns!
this is so pretty, but would not suit my figure at all. great job!
Kathie, I love you. Let’s be BFF’s for EVS!
What an enjoyable read! I belive you rock the sports bra, etc. I was just admiring myself in a similar way at the YMCA this evening.
Kathie, do you think this would benefit from a SBA if one is a B cup (just barely)? Thanks for your fun and thorough review!
This is without a doubt,one of the best reviews EVAH! Hysterical. I love the pattern. You did a great job- I think the dress turned out perfectly!
If all reviews were written with this much honesty and humor i would read ‘em all day! Thanks!
You did a great job on the blouse and dress too. Perhaps you could use the too short dress as a tunic?
Not being blessed with boobs, I doubt I will ever make Collette patterns even though they look wonderful. However, I think Kathie should write pattern reviews as often as possible because this was a total hoot to read! I’d read anything Kathie writes.
This post is brilliant and so are you. Good job!
First, thanks for this review. I’ve been waiting for someone to try one of collete’s popular patterns. This was fun to read and hope to see more of your patterns reviews. Your dress looks so stinkin cute on! You need to rock that dress and your legs look great in it!
Wow, thanks for the thorough review, and great idea for turning it into a cute dress. It looks great! Love. it.
I just made this blouse myself. Thought on the high neck: it’s really high. I’m a moderate girl myself (C-cup) with low tolerance for stuff around my neck, and found it to look and feel uncomfortable. It was an easy fix to cut out a U-shape to drop the front neckline (I left the back alone) and replace the facing with a bias binding finish around the neck. Leaving out the facing made for much less bulk in that already-crowded neck. After I did that, I loved the blouse.
I cut out a 6 from the top down to the waist and graded to a 10 at the hips (I run) and that worked perfectly. I’ve also successfully graded the Ceylon dress and Beignet skirt the same way.
And, regarding the buttons: I don’t have to undo any buttons at all to get the blouse off and on! And next time I’m lapping the back pieces and not even putting any buttons in the thing. It will be such an easy sew!
I’ve only made one Colette pattern so ar, but it would have a tiny statement at the end of certain seams – “finish seam.” I think this is where they assume you’ll serge it if you have a serger.
Love the review. Cracked up the whole time. So nice to be amused by a pattern review.
Thanks for sharing this!