salme lydia blouse

My last summer sewing project before plunging into fall and winter ideas (to be honest, I’m in waist deep already 🙂 ).
As mentioned in my Kimono dress post, I’ve discovered Salme Patterns for me. I really like Elisa’s designs – simple with a touch of vintage.
So I couldn’t wait to make the Lydia blouse in this gorgeous lightweight cotton/silk mix feather print.


On the whole I’m very happy with this. I did have a few issues with this pattern though:

• The fit is good, but man, these patterns really do run small! I should have gone up a size, even though I made the size that should have fitted me perfectly. It still fits, but the back is a bit tight and with the thin fabric the seams already look like they won’t last forever. Next time (yes, there’ll be a next time!) I’ll go up a size.
• The instructions are pretty sparse. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to get 11 pleats into the front, so I ended up with less
• That neckline is a lot higher than in the pattern picture. I don’t think I did anything wrong here and it looks ok but I really wish it was a lower.

Things I liked about this pattern: It was easy and fast to assemble while still teaching me new techniques. The sleeve cuff finish especially is a very interesting folding technique which I liked a lot (I should mention I did blindstitch the whole cuff by hand instead of doing only a few tucks as instructed). I omitted the shoulder detail but I’ll probably make it next time. The pattern comes without seam allowances, which suited me fine since I was free to add my own 5/8 ” and french seam the whole thing. On second thought, maybe that’s what made my neckline so high…maybe I should have added a slimmer seam allowance there.
Using Jen’s great tutorial, I french seamed the sleeve inset and it worked great! Now I’m wondering why I’ve never done it before…so nice and neat!


Now…off to buy fall fabrics!

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