Wednesday 13 March 2013

Leopard Mathilde Blouse


Unless you've been surfing the online sewing community with your eyes closed for the last month or so (you mentalist!), you've no doubt come across the first downloadable pattern, the Matilde Blouse, designed and released by the super-talented Tilly of Tilly and the Buttons blog. Aside from Tilly's own of course, there are some truly fabulous versions of this pattern popping up all over blogville, many of which can be seen on Tilly's maker gallery. Go and see for yourself if you don't believe me...


I was asked by Tilly to one on of her army of testers for this pattern and its instructions. As someone who has developed and released my own sewing patterns, I was thoroughly impressed by the amount of work and attention to detail Tilly put into making the pattern, instructions and everything else that went along with releasing it as flawlessly and user-friendly as humanly possible. IMO, she has seriously put some of the well-known sewing pattern companies to shame in these regards! Everything about Tilly's approach to the process, including garment design, graphics, detailed blog posts, community involvement and so on has been amazing, in my book. 


So ta da!!! Here's my version of this blouse pattern. As Tilly admitted herself, she wasn't sure if the style of this blouse was particularly 'Zo-esque', but we both agreed the final garment is plenty 'Zo', not least thanks to the injection of leopard print! This fabric was a gift from the lovely Karen, and has been languishing in my stash for a year or so. When the Mathilde blouse called for something light-weight with a bit of drape, I knew it was time to get this fabric deployed! I had bought a pack of red vintage plastic buttons for the back fastening but when I opened the pack one of them was a different design to the others, and there wasn't enough of the predominant style. That would annoy me so I opted for a complete set of metallic silver ones from my stash instead. 


The reason I have taken longer than everyone else involved in the testing to get my version out there is that I had to remake my sleeves, and packing up and moving flats last week put sewing to the back burner for a while (don't you hate it when that happens?!). A combo of a printer scaling error on my part and the initial pattern being a little short in the sleeve length for the non-petite meant my initial sleeves finished at a slightly annoying point around my elbow. Finding these things out was of course the point of having testers in the first place! Having finally got my new sewing room set up into some sort of useable state last weekend I was able to return to this blouse and I'm dead pleased with the fit of the final sleeve version. 


Even thought the sleeves are very voluminous, I was able to wear my reversible bolero shrug over this blouse today with no trouble or discomfort at all. So, aside from it being too damn cold for light-weight blouses at the moment, I declare this a 'wearable garment' that I predict will definitely see wardrobe rotation, therefore I count this as the third in my sewlution of twelve wearable garments made by me this year! BOOM!!!!

25 comments:

Stevie said...

Awesome version Zoe! Hope things went well with the move! x

Trees said...

I've been thinking of making this top too - I love your version!

EmSewCrazy said...

You look super cute! It looks like something you will be able to get a lot of use out of this year. I like seeing this made up in a print.

Unknown said...

GORGEOUS!

Crab and Bee said...

I love how you're experimenting with your style this year! This looks fantastic and plenty Zoe.

Marie said...

Totally love it!

Jo H. said...

Love it! Love love love it! And I really must get more leopard print into my wardrobe.

The Long & Winding Bobbin said...

Love it! great fabric choice, I have been spying leopard print everywhere... hooray

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous! Now I want one in leopard too. And it is totally Zoe.

ClaireE said...

I love this! I've almost finished my first one but didn't think about animal print.

Bec Stitches said...

Love it, it looks great :) leopard definitely suits you

didyoumakethat said...

Oh, wow! I remember that fabric. It took me about a year to hand it over to you, so I'm glad to see it used. A fabulous Zoe take on the blouse.

Debbie said...

A really great Mathilde. Love the leopard print!

kriston lion said...

I love it! I love it! I think those red buttons would have looked gorgeous though! :)

Far said...

Very pretty blouse! Esp loving the sleeves and buttons at the back :)

Jo said...

I'm loving this! I like the pattern but have been questioning whether it's my style. Seeing it in leopard print makes me lean towards 'yes'. The fabric choice seems to make a big difference.

Tilly said...

Babe alert!! Looking good, mrs! x

Masustak eguzkitan said...

It looks great on you. It´s totally Zoe!!! I love it :-)

Philippa said...

hoorah for wearable makes! I wouldn't have seen you in this blouse but in leopard it actually looks fantastic. My favourite of all I have seen!

Unknown said...

This is amazing and I love the print. I can't wait to make mine in a few weeks.

Bridget said...

Super cute! I've been lusting after that pattern for a while. I think it may be time I plopped down my money and made one, too!

Anonymous said...

This is so cute on you! Way to Zoe-ify this pattern!

Charity Shop Chic (Sally) said...

It's gorgeous! Loving the leopard print!

Anonymous said...

The BEST !!!
Love this so much.

Kelly said...

Beautiful version! It really suits you and it's fun to see how versatile the top is in different fabrics.

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