Helmi Blouse

I'm not sure where I first saw forget me not patterns but when they had a big sale last year I bought a few patterns because the style of the garments really appealed to me. The patterns seem to be more for intermediate sewists so I thought they might give me some new challenges. The style is slightly smarter with more fitted details. 

A knitting friend very kindly passed on some lovely burgundy double gauze fabric to me recently. She'd seen my instagram post about the Reynold's top I made last year and remembered she had some fabric she had never gotten round to using. I happily took it off her hands. The colour is lovely and double gauze is lovely to work with and feels great to wear. I watched this helpful video by Skipping Stitches about working with double gauze.

The fabric wasn't very long just about 1.5m but it was very wide so it turned out I could get a whole long sleeved top from it. I searched my patterns and settled on the Helmi blouse by Forget Me Not patterns. I really liked the peter pan collar and the big gathered sleeves. The pattern includes three different bust sizes so I didn't need to do a full bust adjustment just pick the bust measurements closest to my size. The pattern has side darts on the front and a two long back darts which give it a nice more fitted shape. 

I loved sewing this up, as I mentioned double gauze is lovely to work with. It was so easy to sew that I did it all in one day. For once I made no mistakes so didn't need to slow down to unpick anything. One thing I found was that clips were better than pins as the pins seemed to fall out of this fabric pretty easily. I'm delighted with how it turned out and I've already worn it a few times. I would definitely make this pattern again. I think it would be lovely in a drapey fabric. There is also a version with ruffles that would be nice for a dressier look.