BurdaStyle Blouse Sewing Pattern Review

It is so difficult to choose new sewing projects. As a relatively new sewer, I still don't have the confidence to sew all of my favourite fabrics to wear, so for the moment, I will continue to choose projects based on my sewing ability.

I have sewn three shirt styles from two patterns - and I am actually falling in love with the classic look which chambray shirts give. They are comfortable and give more ease than you expect. I am definitely going to do a couple more shirts, they are also perfect for the cooler late Summer days. I also intend to make a lined jacket, based on a loose shirt design - I am still working my way up to that.

My Second Type of Shirt Pattern 

Projects To Try

Batch Sewing To Save Time

Design Your Own Clothes

I made a blouse from the new BurdaStyle magazine (08/2021) - pattern number 121. It is essentially a chambray shirt with a drapey soft pleated viscose back. The front looks like a classic collar shirt and the back is a lovely feminine viscose. I have not sewn with viscose before, so I hoped that using one inserted viscose panel will be the easiest place to start with viscose. I can definitely recommend starting with one panel. The blouse is very similar to the shirt style I have made twice, but this will be the first Burda pattern I will

make - where I need to add the seam allowance to the pattern. 

I bought the plain blue chambray from A&M Textiles and got the viscose on sale from A&M Textiles in High Wycombe.  The viscose is a dark blue large-format floral. They have a sales rail where they drape some of the end-of-roll fabrics. 

The idea is to make the shirt look very plain from the front, so that the pleated back is a lovely surprise. I will have some fabric left over, I might see if I can create a skirt to pair with the shirt. In any case, the shirt will be lovely for the office or even for dinner.

This blouse took two weekends to make, The method of sewing the cuffs on this shirt is quite different from the other shirt cuffs I've sewn. The magazine does not give full instructions for this, so I had to do some research. 

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This blouse is from the BurdaStyle Magazine 08/2021 and you can buy the magazine on eBay here

If you would prefer to buy just one pattern, you can buy it from Burda here. I have no affiliate with Burda.

Find me on YouTube, I often do a video to complement my post; Sew! And Everything Else on YouTube.

As you can see, in the instructions, Burda assumes that you have made a similar item before and only gives a basic overview of the construction. They give more detail for unusual details, such as the pleated back on this pattern. To be fair to Burda, if you subscribe or buy the magazine regularly, you will see that they usually include one tutorial project, where all the instructions are shown in detail. They also have a YouTube channel with lots of good information.

It may look like a mess, but to be fair, Burda does tell you which sheet the pattern appears on and which colour it is printed in. The sheets, A, B, C and D are all clearly marked.

Here are my traced and cut pieces. I actually wish I'd included the 1,5cm seam allowance here - it was a fair faff to add it while cutting out - especially with the viscose fabric.

I was very careful to mark up where seam allowances need to be added, as I may wish to make another in future.

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Casual Capsule Wardrobe

Milestones

What Can I Make For a Formal Capsule Wardrobe

You can watch my video on YouTube, which has further information.

Here I used the stitch in the ditch method to close the cuffs. After pressing, the stitches virtually disappeared.

In this picture you can see that by carefully pinning everything in place, the inside, which is on the underside when sewing, is also very neat. It is definitely worth practising this, it was useful to attach the collar, too.

Here is a picture of the slash on the sleeve and above is the result - before I added the buttons.

This is how I sewed a stay stitch along the edge before adding the binding for the vent.

As you can see, I got very close to the final result, only I tucked mine to the inside so that the binding is not usually visible when wearing the shirt. Watch my YouTube video for more information.

This is the finished shirt.

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