The Puff Shirt In Viscose Twill

I recently made the Puff Shirt in viscose twill. It’s a pattern by Wardrobe By Me, which is a new-to-me pattern company based in Denmark. What I liked about this design was the sleek shoulder line and the neat flat collar that curves nicely around the neck. I’m not a fan of shirt collars or big, pouffy gathered sleeve heads, so the simpler features on the Puff Shirt were just my cuppa, and I decided to try it out.

Depending on your fabric choice, the design can appear more voluminous. I chose quite a drapey viscose twill, but a crisp cotton poplin would definitely give you more volume in the lower sleeve and the back gathers. My fabric came from Croftmill, and I love the teal green colour in it. It wasn’t without its problems, though, because there’s a definite pattern repeat and a bit of a grid design, so pattern matching and centering were needed. However, I did at least do a mock-up first to make sure I liked the style and fit, and then I really took my time cutting it all out.

Looking at the measurements, I could see that quite a bit of wearing ease was designed in this blouse, so I went down to a size 6 when the body measurements put me at an 8 for the bust circumference. It turned out to be a good choice, so just be aware of the amount of ease and choose your size according to your preferences.

After making the mock up, I made a couple of adjustments. Firstly, I noticed that the armhole was cut a little low. I’m quite small around my armhole, so I raised the curve by nearly an inch on the sleeve head and bodice. I took a little bit of fullness from the lower sleeve section and also from the gathered section below the yoke at the back. Out of the two hemline variations, I chose the shorter straight hem, and I still ended up removing more length because the patterns are drafted for a height of 5’8″ according to the measurements table, whereas I’m only 5′ 3 1/2″. I didn’t change the sleeve length, so maybe the fit model had shorter arms?

I thoroughly enjoyed making this blouse, and the fabric was nice to sew, even though it was a little slippery. The pattern instructions were fine with good illustrations for each step, and they were easy to understand.

With my fabric being a bit delicate and prone to fraying, I used French seams for most of the major seams rather than just sewing and overlocking, so the insides are nice and neat.

I admit to cheating considerably on the sleeves, though and instead of a tower placket for the sleeve opening, I just did a very simple binding. I felt that a tower placket was more suited to crisper fabrics and what I think of as proper shirts, whereas I consider this to be more of a blouse. Plus, it was a heatwave when I was sewing it, so there was definitely an element of not wanting to make the effort to sew a tower placket when my brain was being fried in my non-air-conditioned sewing room 🙂

I found some lovely little oblong shell buttons for the front fastening, and I love how they look, particularly how they catch the light. I sewed the buttonholes before I completed the hem, and then I ended up making it a bit shorter than I first thought, which now makes the bottom button a bit too close to the bottom of the blouse. It’s just me being picky, but hey ho, it’s fine 🙂 .

I love my finished blouse, and the fabric feels so nice to wear. I like how it looks with my cream jeans, and it’ll also go really well with my teal green corduroy trousers plus my new, freshly made black jeans, which I blogged about last week.

I’ve just finished sewing another pattern by Wardrobe By Me, so do watch out for that in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, I still have another make in my catch-up list to show you, so I’ll see you next with that plus a couple of refashions.

See you soon!