Dolman Barrel-Sleeved Blouse

This dolman barrel-sleeved blouse was made using the Fibremood Sanna pattern. It’s the third time I’ve used this Fibremood pattern, but by now I’m not sure how much it resembles the original Sanna design on the FM website, because I’ve tinkered with the shape quite a bit. The first time I sewed it in a softer, drapier fabric, I made it less oversized and played with the back detail. The second time, I used a crisper fabric, which I prefer, and shaped it even more. Now here we are with yet another version and more modifications that I’ll tell you about in a minute, so stay tuned.

This fabric is a lovely quality Hoffman Bali Cotton lawn that I got from Croftmill. I loved the delicate dandelion seed heads in the print and the muted blue tones with the touches of mahogany brown/red. The feel of this fabric is so nice; it’s crisp, but not too crisp and feels nice against the skin with almost a peachy texture. I’m really getting into woven tops these days. I used to be so much more of a knit wearer. Isn’t it funny how tastes change? Anyway, I think this sort of fabric weight is perfect for this type of blouse.

So, the Sanna is designed as a loose-fitting, dolman-sleeved top with pleats near the sleeve hems and an open design down the back seam. As you can see, my more fitted top is quite far removed from the intended style, which looks quite unstructured. I’ve literally used it just as a starting point.

So what modifications have I done?

First of all, some fit adjustments: I removed some overall length and took in some width for very subtle waist shaping. There was too much volume and width at the back of my shoulder blades, so I made shoulder darts on my forward shoulders, and I also continued sewing right down from the dart ends to beyond the hipline to create a sort of princess seam, if you like.

I increased the lower sleeve pleat intake a bit, and for this version I reversed the pleat folds so they fold out instead of in. I also enhanced the curve of the centre sleeve seam for added structure to make more of a barrel sleeve.

You’ll also notice that I’ve used flat piping down the sleeves, down an added front seam and down the centre back. I’ve used some old sheeting, and unfortunately some of it isn’t on the bias, but I think it works 🙂

For the first two versions of this design, I raised the underarm curve of the dolman sleeve to bring it a bit nearer to my armpit. Range of motion in those blouses isn’t too bad, but there was still room for improvement. This is where my next modification comes in.

To add a better range of motion when raising my arms, I’ve added diamond-shaped gussets to the middle of the underarm curve. To do this, the first thing I did was to locate, with my best guess, the middle of the curve. I drew a short line on my fabric that angled toward the armpit, and then I reinforced the endpoint of the line with a small piece of interfacing. I repeated this on both underarms on the back and front pieces. I then stay-stitched either side of the line, leaving a gap in the middle and pivoting at the end of the line. See the dotted lines on the pattern to indicate the stay stitching.

(You’ll need to zoom in on the blouse underarm to see the gusset as it blends in well)

The scary bit came next, where I cut in between the stay-stitching, stopping a couple of millimetres before the pivot point. This is where the gusset gets stitched in place, but not before I stitched the underarm seams together.

I drafted two diamond shapes of fabric using the measurement of the slit length as the length of the gusset sides. Finally, I had to sew the gussets in place, which proved to be pretty fiddly. It worked out really well in the end, though, despite some cursing 🙂 , and the difference it makes is great. Also, when I’m wearing the top, you can’t really tell the gussets are there, but my comfort level is much better.

I used a simple button and loop to close the back neck slit; all the main seams are overlocked, and the hem is just turned up twice and machine-stitched. The cotton fabric sewed like a dream and pressed just as easily.

I’m very pleased with how this top turned out, and I think I might go back to my brown version to make similar modifications because this was so successful. I have some leftover pieces of the print in one of the scrap drawers that I could use for the underarm gussets, and I know it’ll increase my comfort level if I take the time to adjust it. I must do it before Autumn comes; otherwise it’ll never get done…hehe

Thanks for reading; see you soon!