Blouses

For this shooting photographer Ashley and Thea made their way to Copenhagen to meet a good blogger friend of sisterMAG: Brittany Watson Jepsen of »The House That Lars Built«. She was brave enough to take the icycold temperatures and rainy conditions in the Danish capital and to pose for us in six white blouses.

Every woman should possess at least one white blouse. Therefore, we have prepared for you the pattern for a universally usable example: modern in A-line shape, so that it can also be worn over jeans, as we did with Victoria in the »Tech at Home« feature. It is joined by five models – handmade or purchased – which we embellished with different craft techniques. Thus, each blouse is unique.

Inspiration for our blouses often came from the collection of old fashion magazines, Evi stores on the attic of our workshop in large cabinets sorted by year. »A Blouse for Everyday Life« or the »Dashing Blouse« put a smile on our face. Thus, we layouted the following pages in the style of the magazines of the 1950s.

We found the perfect setting for our shooting in Copenhagen, because we were allowed to visit Brittany in her studio, which she shares with other creatives – amongst them two wedding photographers and our stylist. Stepping down the three steps to the front door, the feeling to enter Brittany‘s blog arises immediately. The windows are decorated with oversized paper flowers, pennant flags fly around the room and her work space is filled with colorful scraps of paper and scissors of all kinds.

Model 1. Blouse in A-line shape.

Model 1 A dashing modern blouse – easily washed and ironed – is what we want for everyday use: high-necked with a small triangle collar. Easy to pimp with a nice necklace.

Blouse – handmade with pattern | Skirt – handmade from brocade fabric | Shoes – Prada

Pattern 1. Blouse. Up to 96 cm bust size. Material: 0, 90 m, 1,40 width

Size: Germany, France, Scandinavia: 36 / 38 UK: 10 / 12 USA: 8 /10 Italy: 40 / 42 Spain, Portugal: 38 / 40

Cut: Copy the blouse pattern including the pattern for the pocket from our download pattern. Place pattern onto fabric and cut out all parts with seam allowance (edges 1 cm, hem 2 cm). Cut yoke twice and pocket once (3 cm seam allowance at upper edge). For armhole edge cut 2 diagonal stripes 3 cm wide, 20 cm long.

Sewing: Iron lining fabric onto one collar and one collar band. Place upper and lower collar pieces with right sides facing and sew together. Cut back seam allowance at collar corners, turn right side out and iron. Stitch together open lower edge and if desired topstitch along the collar edge.

Put the open lower collar edge between the upper collar band edges, stitch, turn right side out and iron.

Place pleat as shown in pattern in the centre back, iron and stitch. Stitch pleat at waist level as indicated in pattern.

Place yoke parts with right sides facing, put the back part between the yoke parts and stitch, turn up yoke parts and iron.

Stitch front bodices right sides facing onto the top layer of the yoke part. Iron and hand stitch the edge of the lower yoke layer with small invisible stitches, then iron.

Iron along the front edge according to pattern.

Place collar onto neckline edge right sides facing, stitch and iron. Now sew by hand (with small invisible stitches) the inner lower collar band edge on the inner neckline edge.

Close side seams and overlock the edges.

Turn over armhole edges with diagonal stripes.

Stitch buttonholes and sew on buttons.Hem bottom edge close to the edge.

Iron down the edges of the pocket and tack, if preferred. Tack the pocket onto the left bodice of the blouse as shown on the pattern and stitch.

Model 2. Blouse with self-made beads

Blouse – Vintage blouse from Grandma embellished with beads (handmade & bought) | Wrap Skirt – handmade from heavy, red wool gabardine | Pumps – ZARA

Model 2 »Here are the darlings of this year‘s blouse fashion: The small delicate white«, but modernised with self-sawed acryl beads à la Prada. The elegant wrap skirt comes along with a series of sewn flowers made ​ of acryl.

Please Note! For the preparation of the beads, a fretsaw to cut wood or acryl was used. When using this equipment caution must be paid. A finished bead kit can also purchased from sister- MAG.

Instructions

The beads are easy to self saw: print stencil and transfer to cardboard. Transfer form with pen or pencil to acryl panel – allow as little space and therefore waste as possible.

Saw out the form.

Polish the edges of the beads. It‘s best to first place abrasive paper on a smooth surface and polish acrylic bead edges there. Grind edge thereby lightly at a 45° angle. Repeat with fine sandpaper so that edges are smooth and silky.

Drill holes with a thin driller at the top and the bottom of the pearls (this works best on a drill bench, but you can also use a power drill – then fix the beads well).

Use transparent nylon thread to embroider so that the attachment of the beads remains invisible.

Embroider beads by scheme.

Model 3. Printed Blouse with earring motive.

Blouse – H&M with ironed earrings | Striped Skirt – Instruction in sisterMAG N°3 | Wedges – Buffalo | Tights – Falke | Earrings – fleamarket in Puglia / Italy

Model 3 A lovely blouse for all digital ladies. It is embellished with ironed pictures of earrings.

Blouse in White

Either download the sisterMAG template or photograph the earrings on a white surface with good lighting conditions.

Load image in Photoshop and edit as follows:

1. Set background in white (Curves layer and click with white dropper on background).

2. Possibly remove fractures or dust in background with stamp. Flatten level.

3. Insert hue / saturation layer and colour image in brown. Adapt contrast, brightness and saturation.

Print image on transfer film in high quality. Lay blouse flat on an ironing board and place transfer film with top down.

Iron on transfer motif (thereby turn off the iron steam) for about 2-4 minutes. Observe the instructions of the transfer film manufacturer.

Cool briefly and then carefully pull off the back of the transfer film. Done!

Model 4. Smocked men's shirt.

Blouse – Used men‘s shirt by Hugo Boss | Jeans – H&M Squin in Dark Blue |Necklace – private

Model 4 And here is a pretty blouses that works well for a day at your desk. An used men‘s shirt was fitted ​with tuxedo details in front and back.

Dashing Blouse

Plot a point grid at the specified location with a pencil and ruler. The distance between the points and the distance between the rows must be equal. The points must be exactly aligned.

We have taken a distance of 1 cm. Now row threads are put in in every point row. You should take stronger threads, so it does not tear during tightening. Pierce in at point and right in the middle between 2 points out – repeat. After all row threads are entered, string together the fabric evenly to desired width and knot.

Now embroider the wrinkles. We have cross-stitched an elastic honeycomb pattern. 2 rows are over-stitched in one operation, i.e. sew together the first two wrinkles with a back stitch, pierce the needle at the 2nd wrinkle and lead in wrinkles downwards in the 2nd row and pierce out. Now combine in row 2 the 2nd and 3rd wrinkle with a back stitch and pierce in again upwards in the 1st row and pierce out. Now combine in row 1 the 3rd and 4th wrinkle with a back stitch and continue.

Note that, in this type of smock an even number of rows must be plotted. The type of stitch is elastic and offers easy movement.

Model 5. Painted Blouse.

Blouse from Grandma‘s wardrobe by Esprit. | Feather Skirt handmade. Fabric: Idee Berlin | Gloves private | Pumps ZARA

Model 5 The deliberately simple summer blouse, which is hand-painted with a Frankfurt apple wine pattern, is very effective.

We discovered the pattern of the Frankfurt apple wine pubs on a napkin in a Frankfurt souvenir shop. You can also download the pattern.

First retrace the pattern with a pen clip. Then place with top down on the blouse and iron. The contours should now be visible on the white fabric.

Blue and black fabric paint is used for colouring.

Model 6. Blouse with chest cross-stitch pocket.

Blouse – from Grandma‘s wardrobe, handmade | Rose Skirt with petticoat: private | Wedges – Zalando, €39,95

Model 6 The handembroidered chest pocket with rose motif makes the simple short-sleeved blouse special. Motif for reproduction.

Download embroidery pattern and print cross stitch pattern.

Insert AIDA fabric (for this blouse we used fabric with 5 squares per cm) to hoop and embroider design in cross stitch. At the end embroider the entire background with black embroidery thread (see margins in the pattern).

If a chest pocket is already sewn on, detach. Trim AIDA fabric with about 1,50 cm seam allowance and turn over. Sew chest pocket and sew on (maybe by hand) on the white blouse.

photos: Ashley Ludäscher | hair & makeup: Lenore Rosendal | styling: Evi Neubauer