My Loominous Colette Aster

This is one of my last two unblogged projects from 2017. I actually finished this Colette Aster back in October but procrastinated sewing the buttonholes until I was able to use my mom's fancy Bernina in early November. And then I procrastinated taking photos, and then I procrastinated blogging. Oh well, I am here now. "Slow maker" is my new moniker and I am living up to it well!



I have become a person who loves the color pink. Mostly brick, adobe, brownish shades of pink but I do love this pop of color from this gorgeous Loominous fabric from Anna Maria Horner. I have been a long time fan girl of Anna and her fabrics and this line is even more wearable for me than most of her designs.



I did not create a muslin for this top, my bad. I put the pattern together as drafted, and it was baggy, gapey and all kinds of ugly from the back. I should have known better, as I always need a sway back adjustment. Luckily, the editing that I had to do to fix my issues made the back pattern piece smaller than the original, allowing me to recut the back from the already cut pattern piece. I think I achieved a really great fit and after my initial befuddlement that made me very happy.



I do find the sleeves to be a bit tight, and while I like the look of the slim fit I think my biceps need a tiny bit more room next time. There is plenty of room across the back, shoulders and chest, so it isn't that I chose the wrong size. This is version 1 in size 2 by the way.



I figured out too late that I used the wrong side of this fabric. It is a very loose weave and I am not sure how it will hold up over time. I will have to be careful with this blouse.

1. Original Pattern piece             2. Second draft with pleat eliminated and swayback removed      3. Final result with ease added in at hips. 

Here is the evolution of my pattern alterations. It took some thinking and research to figure this out because I had only ever done swayback adjustments on garments with a waist seam. The original pattern piece is on the left. I eliminated the pleat because there was way too much volume for my taste. Then I cut a wedge out at the waist line for the sway back adjustment. Finally I had to add ease back into the hip by pivoting at the center back. You can see that my final back pattern piece ended up with a curve at the top where it meets the yoke. I'm not sure if this is the "correct" way to do a swayback adjustment on a blouse but it worked for me and I am pleased with the result.



As simple as this pattern is, I had always been drawn to its style lines. I do plan to make the other two versions at some point now that I have the fit down. I would recommend this pattern for someone as an introduction to sewing a button down blouse. I think it has just the right balance of simplicity, modernity and classic lines for my taste.