Gemma’s Norma Blouse
Gemma received the Mini box in October and made the Fibre Mood Norma Blouse
As we welcome Esther to our team, it means each month we will randomly be sent any one of the boxes from Hayley, which really excites me as it gives us a whole new element of surprise as to what we will receive!
Getting the Luxury Box last time, I was interested to see how having a Mini Box would fair fabric wise, as I’m so used to having pretty much enough fabric for whatever I may want to make, and I knew a mini box’s smaller amount may have me scratching my head that little bit more to come up with something good!
I know we say this every month, but last month’s box theme was so good! The Mini and Classic boxes had 3 colours of beautiful double gauze fabric, and Hayley made sure to send me the one that would compliment me and my hair colour so wonderfully – a really lovely olive/khaki green is the best way I can describe it! I’ve recently been converted to double gauze fabric: it’s actually quite a stable and easy fabric to sew with, has structure and drape at the same time and is both cool and warm when it needs to be!
As it was one metre I had to really think about what I realistically could make. I happened to be toiling a new-to-me pattern at the time, and luckily I liked it so much that I was determined to try and cut it out no matter the length I had! It is the Norma Blouse by Fibre Mood Patterns, which is a V-neck button down blouse pattern with three-quarter length balloon sleeves that are pretty full at the shoulders! I wasn’t sure if I would like the style, and for someone who isn’t really a fan of sleeves I’m not sure why making something with statement sleeves like this seemed so appealing, but there was something about the simplicity of it that really drew me – well that was until it came to gathering those sleeves!
As luck would have it the toile I was making was also in a double gauze, which I found was the perfect weight for the statement sleeves, and the blouse in general. It turned out to be a fairly simple make – I had it sewn up in an afternoon – and as soon as I tried it on I instantly fell in love with it, and promptly cut out my box fabric to make another one! However I did have to get a little creative with pattern placement due to the amount of fabric I had – those sleeves need quite a bit to achieve that look! In order to make it fit I did have to shorten the bodice slightly by about 1cm, and the same with the sleeve length, but as I plan to wear this top with high waisted jeans it wasn’t too much of an issue for me. I would have happily cut the bodice facings in a different fabric if needed (which also adds a unique factor to the make) but luckily my pattern Tetris game is on point and I managed to make it all fit.
It really is an elegant yet simple looking top, and those sleeves are just wow! I love that they have a cuff, as that really draws in the silhouette and means I don’t end up rolling up my sleeves like I usually do, as it hits at the perfect length for not being in the way. The fullness at the shoulder means there is plenty of movement room and the top itself is a great length for being tucked into jeans/trousers as well as worn straight. I used the buttons from the box which paired beautifully with the colour of the fabric – and I love how this one looks on me! It was hard to capture that green on camera even though I had a very sunny, autumnal backdrop, and so looks more light brown, but I can assure you it is gorgeous! And just goes to show what you can do with even a smaller amount of fabric – who would’ve thought I could get a full on statement sleeve blouse?!