'Sense and Sensibility: Romantic Blouse'

Holiday series with creative suggestions,
sewing patterns and fabrics

The holidays will be different from 'life as we know it' this year. City trips to the big cities for Christmas shopping, going on a skiing holiday or large dinners with family and friends, these are all impossible because of the corona-crisis....

But people are creative and so we are going to celebrate it differently. But how? We have found some nice suggestions and ideas, beautiful sewing patterns (achievable in terms of deadline!) and above all: beautiful (affordable) fabrics!

Sense and Sensibility: a romantic blouse
We came across a beautiful blouse from Sense and Sensibility sewing patterns on the website of the online sewing pattern shop. This blouse is striking and beautiful and has three advantages that we would like to mention.

Three benefits!

1. The blouse falls under the category: Historical clothing and is therefore suitable for L.A.R.P. (= Life Action Role Play) and Cosplay. It is a Victorian blouse that is actually a kind of basic garment. You can wear it with vests, but also corsets, coats, capes and dresses. The blouse is an eye-catcher but also a great basic garment.

2. The blouse is quite easy to make. The sewing pattern is clear and has no pitfalls or really difficult things that require a lot of sewing experience. It looks like a difficult-to-create blouse because of all the ruffles attached to it, but the basic pattern is quite 'basic'. You can also create a lot of extras with it.
For example, tailoring even more by adding more pleats and darts, or making it even more 'Victorian' by working with many ruffles and lace.

3. The blouse is timeless and is very comfortable to wear. Ideal for holidays-series. This blouse seems very 'dressed' but is really just a blouse that fits and wears comfortably. The holidays 2020 will, in most cases, be celebrated at home in a limited social circle. Wear a nice blouse, a skirt or jeans underneath and you will look festive without too much fuss!

Which fabric and color do you choose?
These fabrics are recommended for the sewing pattern: cotton, pima cotton, linen, voile, organic cotton, batiste, silk, and all other lightweight to medium weight fabrics.

DO NOT use stretchy or elastic fabrics.  For the ruffles and other decorations you can choose: lace, bias band, decorative band, band with dots, fringes or embroidered trims.

Our fabric choice: a 'chain' viscose fabric with a nice and supple drape. Supple fabrics will look better and wear more comfortable. But you can also choose a stiffer fabric, the blouse will have more volume and appear more grotesque. This fits nicely with the new trend: The bubble.

Consider Taffeta silk or a poplin cotton. Do you really want to make something chic out of the blouse: choose silk or a special print. Create super chic cuffs in a contrasting color or let the special buttons be the eye-catchers.

Sewing and cutting:
Sense and Sensibility is a brand of fine, special patterns. The sewing pattern comes in a large sturdy paper envelope and the sewing pattern is drawn on sturdy white paper. So you just have to cut it out.

The instructions are very clear and nicely handwritten.

The only comment we have: the sleeves are short and the cuffs are quite tight. Adjust this yourself if you want the sleeves longer and if you want the cuffs to be slightly wider.

Also make sure that the seam allowances is 5/8 ". This is, quite untraceable, in the text on the cover of the sewing pattern.

Summarized:
'Sense and Sensibility: a romantic blouse' is a sewing pattern that you can use for many purposes. From an L.A.R.P. (= Life Action Roleplay) event to a blouse for daily use. Or a special blouse for the holidays.

The blouse is timeless and you can make it whatever you want. The blouse is also completely the new trend when it comes to shape and comfort (in Corona stay-at-home times).