Hello Internet Friends!

Today, for the second week in a row, I’m brining you another Friday Pattern Co Pattern, the Wilder Gown & Blouse. This fabulous pattern with it’s fun gathered collar deserved an equally fabulous fabric choice! So i went with this bright abd cheery tiger print rayon by Ruby Star Society (an instant mood buster to some of the rainy winter days here in Vancouver).

Before getting to the pattern I wanted to talk a bit more about the fabric which I purchased from one of my local favourite stores, Dressew! When I first spied the this fabric I knew instantly that I would want to make a fun blouse out of it. Unfortunately when making my cutting request of 1.5 m forgot that many of Ruby Star Society’s fabrics come in 44” widths instead of the more typical 50-55” widths, so I effectively short changed myself just enough to be a problem. Luckily I rarely cut on the fold (I only really cut on the fold with knits) and I tend to trace out my patterns completely prior to cutting and noticed that I would be short one sleeve 😞. I could have cut the second sleeve upside down if necessary but I knew that it would bug me to have one sleeve with upside down tigers. Given that there was only a little bit of the fabric left on the bolt when I made my initial purchase I didn’t have much hope that there would even be the 0.5 m left that I needed to finish my top.

In a second stroke of luck my partner the FluffyBlondeMonster, was with me on my second trip to Dressew. I have a bad tendency of sometimes letting shyness or want to ‘not be a bother’ get the better of me which leads me to avoid asking or ‘bugging’ sales staff for things. When I initially saw that the bolt of fabric was missing from the section that normally houses the Ruby Star Society fabric I was disappointed but resigned to the fact that I would have to use the fabric that I had for another project instead of the Wilder Blouse. The FluffyBlondeMonster suggested that I simply ask someone if they still had it but again I felt shy/didn’t want to be a bother so declined. He took it upon himself to ask and by complete chance happened to ask the one sales associate who knew exactly where the fabric was! Turns out that there was just over 0.5m of the fabric remaining on the bolt which was barely enough to wrap around the cardboard of the bolt. The associate noticed this and put the piece aside to be bundled up as a remnant later that day. She was able to go and grab that final piece of fabric and was happy that “it was going to a good home!” I love other fabric lovers!

After a quick spin through the wash the fabric was ready to cut to make the final sleeve that I needed for my blouse! For this version I cut a size L and the only modification I made was to shorten the length by 2”. Having warn the top a few times I think my only other modification would be to raise the notch for where the seam stops in the center front by 3/4 -1” so that I could either loosen the bow or leave it untied with out showing off my bra. I may add a small hook and eye to the blouse in the future to allow for that option. Other than that small note this pattern is fantastic! I love how the neckline has so many ruffles and how the neck tie is actually not at the top of the collar but about an inch below which allows the collar to have a kind of double ruffle effect.

This top is also another quick sew, with only two workday evenings to get it all done! I’m very much temped to make a second long sleeve version with the ruffles duplicated at the wrists either through mimicking the way it was done at the neck or with a simple addition of some 1/4” elastic. Hope you guys enjoy this fun top as much as I do!