The first pattern we are introducing is the Hoya blouse! Don’t be fooled by its clean lines and minimalist style: this blouse is full of smart construction details!
Inspiration
For Hoya, we wanted to create a summer blouse that would be both elegant and easy to wear on a daily basis. We quickly decided to do a wrap neckline, because of its feminine and delicate aspect, and to associate it with straight and clean style lines to bring some modernity to the garment.
Here are a few inspirations that led us to our final design:
The pattern
Hoya is a mock-wrap straight blouse with lapels and a lined front. There are two variations in the pattern: version A has short sleeves, and version B has ¾ sleeves and sleeve tabs.
The Hoya blouse is designed for lightweight fabrics: voile, swiss dot, crepe, rayon, silk… Depending of the fabric, the resulting blouse can be either drapey or boxy: you can see the difference between our prototype for version A, made out of cotton swiss dot, and the one for version B sewn in silk voile. Its straight and streamlined silhouette is a nice complement in our catalogue to the Airelle blouse and Mélilot shirt, which are more fitted.
Our main challenge in designing Hoya was to create a wrap neckline that would be feminine but not immodest. The top panel of the blouse is thus stitched in place over the bottom one on part of the overlap, letting the neckline open on just an inch or so. This “faux-wrap” lets you bend over and sit down without having to readjust your blouse all the time 😀 . The lined front is great to use sheer fabrics (playing with the transparency on the sleeves and back), or using a contrasting fabric for the lapels, while keeping the inside neat and clean.
The Hoya blouse has a 3/5 level, which means it is designed with intermediate sewists in mind. The main technical points lie in the recommended fabrics (don’t hesitate to use starch or gelatin to rigidify slippery fabrics!), the precision needed for the back neckline binding, and the biais edges of the front panels that need to be manipulated with care so they don’t stretch. But don’t worry, our instruction booklet is here to guide you!
francesca, March 16 2017
Great inspiration post, thanks…. As soon as I saw that this had a self lined front, I thought of this gorgeous soft silk/cotton voile I bought on line – when it came, I was a bit taken aback as it is so seethrough, much more than other voiles I own. Love the fact that I don’t have to sew any darts in this somewhat tricky fabric – and I hate darts in most silks anyway as they spoil that lovely fall! Also, the fabric is a really gorgeous hot pink – which will be balanced by the straight lines…. so yes, I was so happy to grab this pattern! I also have some handkerchief linen which will look great in this….