Finished Project: SBCC 309 - Mimosa Blouse

Continuing on my personal quest to sew patterns from pattern companies that are friendly to my figure-type, I made up the SBCC Mimosa blouse last week:

SBCC Mimosa blouse

This is a great woven blouse for summer. It's easy-fitting without being boxy (it has bust darts for shaping), and the tie detail adds interest without being fussy. As you might be aware, SBCC specializes in petite sizes (both misses and plus sizes) with their patterns, but if you're taller, they all include lengthen-shorten lines so that you can easily lengthen at the right spots without guessing. I'm 5'2", and I've found the lengths of their patterns to be spot-on for me.

For this version, I used a coral colored cotton pique from Fashionista Fabrics that had been sitting in my stash for a few years. I loved the color, but wasn't sure that it's the best color for my complexion. Seeing the finished blouse, I do think that it brings out the ruddiness in my skin tone, but I don't really care. In any case, this fabric has a hand and drape similar to a blouse-weight linen. I actually feel that it was a little heavy for this blouse, now that it's finished. When I make this again, I will use a voile, lawn, or challis.

Mimosa + McCall's maxi-skirt

I have an older version of the pattern where, when you tape the PDF together, the pages need to butt right up to each other with no overlap. Betsy of SBCC has since released an updated, re-tiled version of the pattern that should be easier to lay out and tape together.

Fitting-wise, I made a size 1X at the shoulders/neckline then did a "cheater FBA" by grading to a 2X at the underarm. (My measurements match the SBCC 2X.) 

For the most part, I love the finished blouse, but there are some changes that I will make the next time around. First, I'm not crazy about the sleeve on this one. when the blouse is laid flat, the hem forms a big "C", and it's just sort of an odd shape. (I suspect that this is partially due to the plus sized draft/grading because I don't see it in the reviews posted by women clearly wearing smaller sizes than me.) You can see this a little bit in the pattern photo from the SBCC web site:

SBCC Mimosa sample photo

Also, the blouse rides up a little bit in front, so instead of doing a cheater FBA, I should have gone with a straight 1X and done an FBA. The dart itself is rather large, so I will likely need to rotate part of that dart elsewhere. (I'm thinking adding some gathers to the shoulder would be nice.) I would definitely like to make this blouse again and will probably use a lightweight woven print for my next version.

Bonus: If you're interested in making up your own Mimosa, this pattern (newly re-formatted for easier PDF printing) is on sale this week from SBCC. (Not at all affiliated, just passing the word along.)