Welcome to your April 2024 Dream Wardrobe.
Spring is finally here, and if you look out the window (hopefully), there is sunshine. You know what spring means: it’s blouse season! Blouses are a wardrobe staple, paired with jeans when it’s cooler or shorts or skirts in the heat. We thought we’d pick the Raida blouse for you as it has so many lovely design features and maybe some techniques you haven’t tried before. We loved the ruffles with the pleats and felt like this style blouse really complimented the feel of the Strawberry Fayre fabric.
About the fabric:
This month, we have picked something special: the super popular Strawberry Fayre linen viscose from the brand-new Fabric Godmother collection. We spent a long time sourcing the perfect base cloth for our linen viscose, which would have the right amount of drape and weight to be super versatile. This fabric has the excellent drape of viscose but with the ease of use and wear of linen.
We have included 2m of this fabric in the April Dream Wardrobe box.
I recommend prewashing your fabric to remove any dressing and allow for pre-shrinking. A cool wash will be fine; just make sure the temperature you use to prewash is the temperature at which you plan to wash the final garment. You don’t want your final garment to shrink.
This fabric would also work well for:
About the pattern:
The Madswick Raida blouse is super versatile. With the pattern pieces and instructions provided, 24 blouses are possible. The Raida Blouse has a circular yoke with a billowy bodice. The sleeves are designed to hit above the elbow or wrist and feature 3 pin-tucks, gathers, and a binding sleeve hem. The pattern has 3 view options and instructions with 2 different hem lengths.
Link to Instructions:
I made short sleeve view A. The fabric requirements for this size are in the size chart below and not on the pattern. Each box contains enough fabric to make this version.
Notions required:
Notions:
- Matching Thread - included in your bream wardrobe box.
- 7 buttons (we used Sweet Heart Buttons)
The Raida blouse would also look great in:
Saffron Flower Linen and Viscose
About your gift:
With your Strawberry Fayre fabric, what better sewing accessory than a matching tape cushion. We just fell in love with this super cute strawberry embroidered design and knew we had to share it with you.
#fgdreamwardrobe
Want to share your Dream Wardrobe? Use the hashtag #fgdreamwardrobe and share your unboxing and final makes on social media.
Happy sewing, Josie xxx
Zoe's sewing notes
Prepping the pattern:
When you’re cutting out the paper pattern, it will look like the yoke and the back pattern pieces haven’t printed correctly. Don’t panic! There is a section on the next A0 sheet that needs to be joined to the pieces on the A0 sheet that is labeled A-1.
Prepping the fabric:
When pressing the fabric, try a two dot setting on your iron with a little steam if necessary after pre-washing it and throughout the construction.
Prepping the pattern pieces before construction:
The fabric has a loose weave so try to avoid over-handling the pieces once they are cut out and during construction. After you cut out your pattern pieces, I would heavily advise stay-stitching along any edges that are curved or on the bias. That includes both the neck edges and lower edges of the yoke pieces, plus the top edges and armholes of the front and back pieces. Stay-stitching is a line of stitching made with a small-regular length straight stitch inside the seam allowance (which on this pattern is ½”). There is no need to remove stay-stitching, so use a close colour matching thread. This might seem like an annoying additional step, but it’s much less annoying than finding your pieces have stretched out, I promise!
Construction tips:
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The Raida blouse pattern includes a less-common ½” seam allowance. If you're not used to sewing with a 1/2" seam allowance and you don't have a clear marking on the needle plate that indicates 1/2" close to the needle hole, add a piece of masking tape or washi tape to create a guide for yourself. This will be especially helpful when attaching the collar to the neckline of the yoke found that the image of the collar pieces in the instructions for Step 7 (page 18) shows more notches on the outside edge of the collar pieces than the pattern piece actually includes, which is a bit confusing.
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After attaching one half of the collar to the neckline of the yoke (Step 7, page 19), BEFORE pressing the seam allowance up into the collar, trim away some of the seam allowance.
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When you get to the sleeves (Step 8, Page 43) I'd recommend using a Frixion to mark the pleats on the sleeves. Mark the pleat lines BEFORE sewing up the sleeve seam, rather than after as per the instructions.
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When inserting the sleeves into the bodice (Page 48), be careful not catch the ruffle. It might help to pin the ruffle out of the way to help avoid this.
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The pattern calls for buttons that are ½” (1.3cm) wide buttons or smaller. The button stand is very narrow, so if you don’t want to the buttons to extend significantly over the edge of the button stand, opt for a smaller button.