Disco in Ditto Jeans Pink

"It's all an illusion, there's too much confusion", from Madonna's "Can We Get Together?" Hot Patterns provided more illusion than reality. The illustrations on their pattern envelopes are illusions to entice you to purchase their patterns!

Based on my experience with three garments, the illustrations on Hot Patterns envelopes do not match the actual results from sewing with the given pattern pieces. It is usually common to adjust patterns to fit our unique figures. It would make sense to draft my own patterns by hand, use drafting software, or purchase a pattern that closely resembles the look that I want. Therefore, I plan not to purchase more patterns from HP.

I purchased this pattern from the recent 2 for 1 sale from HP. The patterns arrived two weeks after I placed my order. Although I anticipate that that the blouse straight from the envelope (thanks to the very helpful reviewers of this pattern) will not look like the concept illustrations (actually the reviewers' blouses looked better!), I wanted to sew this myself and take it from there.





Pattern Description
HP 1064: "Put on your Tango heels and dance up a storm in these pretty Blouses just right for heavy crepe de chine, drapey rayon or soft jaquard. Relaxed fit blouses have 1-piece collar, front button closure and optional front and back darts. Elbow-length sleeved version has gathered sleeves with 3 tiers of fluted ruffles at the hem. 3/4 sleeved version has slim sleeves with deep frill at the hem...".

It should read more like "Put on your platforms and Ditto's Jeans and do the hustle....."

For those not familiar with Hot Patterns, the patterns are printed on heavy paper.


Size
Multi-sized 6-26. I used my upper bust measurement to select the size 12. There's quite a bit of ease nearly everywhere in this blouse, so I was glad to decide on the 12 instead of the 14. Here is the side view so that you can see the drag lines. Please! I appreciate any help and suggestions on this issue.

Fabric
For my first version, I used cotton shirting from FashionFabricsClub.com



Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?
Absolutely not! As noted in previous reviews, there are discrepancies between the illustrations on the envelope and the sewn garment from the actual pattern. I feel like Laurie Partridge ready to sing "Come On, Let's Get the Maracas!"


Features
* Generally easy to put together the way it is drafted
* Definitely not as fitted as illustrated.
* Optional front and back vertical darts help add shape, reducing the boxy or relaxed fit. After finishing my first version, I can see that rotated bust darts would improve the look and fit.
* The collar flares out, 70's retro-style, instead of the collar points being closer together as illustrated
* Sleeve caps have a bit of excess ease
* Sleeves are not fitted as illustrated
* 3/4 sleeve version have actual elbow-length sleeves with 5" frilly cuffs (more like balloon cuffs!!)
* Blouse contains front facings and a back facing
* Just like motorposus, I discovered when sewing the front and the back along the side seams, the front was about 3/4" longer than the back.

Directions
If you are acclimated to Burda WOF directions, then you would find directions for this pattern to be more than sufficient, redundant, and possibly convoluted. It would have been convenient to have illustrations that accompany the 2 printed pages worth of verbage, especially for us visual learners. However, if you are familiar with sewing shirts, then you could get by with little or no guidance. I decided to be bold and abandon HP's directions.

The front and back markings for the sleeve pattern pieces and the correspondings ones on the armscyes of the front and back are easy to overlook because they are very faint.


Modifications
*Added a slightly curved center back seam using the back piece from my favorite Butterick shirt/jacket. This added a flattering back contour from the side and back views. I really did not need to add a seam allowance for the center back seam. After trying on the fronts basted to the back, I took in an additional 3/8" to reduce the bagginess in the back. If I sew another version, I plan to take out a tad of horizontal excess above the waist.

* Set-in the sleeves instead of sewing them flat per the directions. Took in the sleeve seams by another 1/4". However, I chose not to reduce the sleeve caps for that slightly "puffed" look at the ends of the shoulders.

* Used the next larger collar size, 14.

* Shortened length by 1 1/2"

* Used 7 cm spacing between buttons instead of the 10 cm from the "button template"

Would you sew this again? Would you recommend this to others?
If I ever sew this again, I would have to make more adjustments! The blouse is not difficult to sew. It really is a nice, basic shirt pattern that has a lot of possibilties. I could have sewn this in one entire evening if I did not fuss with design and fitting issues.


If you like the style as is, I would recommend this pattern. If you want the style as illustrated on the envelope, you would have to redraft almost the entire pattern as reviewed by LMH.


Conclusion
HP either should (1) change their envelope illustrations to make it match with the actual drafting of this pattern or (2) re-draft the entire pattern to match the illustration.

A more befitting name would be "Disco Vibe, Tango at Studio 54 Blouse!"



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