Hi sewing friends! I recently made the Patina Blouse by Friday Pattern Company – and I think this might be the only one that I ever make. I don’t like to get too negative on pattern reviews, but I do like to be honest. One, to be fair my machine and my fabric were just giving me a hard time during the entire process. I mean, thread jams and all. I literally had to perform surgery one night on my Janome. But more on that later, let’s get into this pattern.
I used 2 yards of stretch poplin in a white and black polkadot print. It was from my stash and I originally bought it from Fabric.com (RIP) sometime last year – with the exact intension to use it for the Patina blouse.
I made the long sleeve version because I’ve been obsessed with puffy sleeves for this. And I made the version with the slightly higher neckline for a more modest look in case I wanted to wear this to work, zoom or church.
I used a nude broadcloth for my facing and inside yoke pieces because I didn’t want weird shadows from the white fabric. That’s one of my unlocked pet peeves that I discovered when I started making clothes.
Next, I used to these really cute cat buttons that I bought mid-pandemic from a store called Each to Own (another RIP moment)… I think they went solely into making earrings. I miss their button business.
So here’s why this might be the first and last time that I make this blouse. One it’s a pilgrim style blouse, which in itself is a novelty. I love a good classic button down – this is just not that style. But I still think it’s cute. Next, I just have nightmares from all the issues that I had with my machine while making this project. It was like none of us were agreeing on the same thing. And it could’ve been me, or expired thread (that’s a thing) or the cheap nude broadcloth, but it should not have been so hard to sew up.
Construction wise, this was easy to make but I do think the facing was “fussy” and this is where I ran into most of my problems. The instructions call for you to add the collar, then add the facing and top stitch. But the instructions do not mention clipping notches to make it fit. Which…. to be fair I should know, but also I had distractions in the making of this blouse. And it was so fussy, and my tension on my machine really didn’t agree with this step that I ended up hand sewing part of the facing.
I also felt that the button placement on the front was off. I marked my buttons based on the pattern piece, but in the construction of it, I realized that the top button would be nearly impossible to attach and use because of the way the collar and neckline lay. Thankfully my collar covers up the useless buttonhole that I made.
Other than that, this was an easy sew but complicated by machine woes. Until next time. Xo
RAVEN MAUREEN 