…A Mini Pattern Hack Blog Post
As soon as March rolls around, I have no interest in sewing for anything other than Spring! Want to get a jumpstart on your Spring sewing? (At least here in the Northeast, we aren’t wearing Spring clothes quite yet!) Grab the Ballad Blouse pattern, you won’t be disappointed.
Today, 3/24/2023 the Love Notions $5 Feature Friday pattern is the Ballad Blouse. It’s a great versatile blouse that can be worn all seasons, but I especially love it in Spring and Summer. I decided to begin my Spring sewing with a sleeve hack for this fun blouse.
If you want ALL the details on the Ballad, such as sizing, options, fabric recommendations and sewing tips visit my Original Ballad Blouse blog post HERE. Also included in that blog post is an explanation on how to Block Fuse your interfacing pieces~ if you’re not doing that with your rayons ~ you should!
How to Create a Puffed Sleeve
- First off, it’s a very simple hack to complete
- Begin with the pattern pieces for the Puff sleeve. There are 2 pieces since this version has a split and tie.
- Attach the front puff sleeve pattern piece to the back puff sleeve pattern piece. Make sure to overlap the pieces 1/2″ to account for the seam you are omitting.
- Cut out 2 mirror imaged sleeve pieces.
- Sleeve ruffle must be attached before inserting the sleeve into the blouse.
- Follow directions below for the sleeve ruffle.
- Continue to follow the directions for the Puff sleeve on the tutorial (page 20) for inserting the sleeve.
How to Make a Sleeve Ruffle
- Measure the width of the bottom of your sleeve. (Mine was 19.25″)
- To determine how long to cut your ruffle piece, take the width of your sleeve x 1.5. (Mine was 19.25 x 1.5 = 28.75″)
- Cut 2 strips(ruffles) 3″ x 28.75″.
- You may want to trim some length off the lower edge of the sleeve before attaching the ruffles. This would be a personal choice depending on how long you would like your sleeve to be. I did not trim any off my sleeve piece.
- Fold each ruffle strip in half, wrong sides together. Press.
- Run a gathering stitch across the unfolded edge.
- Gather ruffle to fit the lower edge of your sleeve. Pin the ruffle to the lower edge of your sleeve, open end of ruffle along bottom edge of sleeve.
- Stitch in place. I then served this seam so I would have no raw edges.
- Press ruffle down away from sleeve and topstitch down. This helps to keep the ruffle from flipping up when wearing.
Thanks for stopping by! I truly appreciate all of you that visit! If you enjoyed this blog post, consider subscribing to my blog to stay up to date with all my posts!
Mary Anne
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Remember to visit my other blog post on the Ballad Blouse . You will find a ton of useful information on that post.
You can grab the Ballad Blouse pattern here.
This is an affiliate link. It costs you nothing to purchase from this link, it just helps fund my fabric addiction which allows me to test and review more patterns.
To receive an additional 10% off the pattern price, use this coupon code SEWMARY10.This coupon code can be used at anytime on any pattern….even a $5 Feature Friday pattern. This code does change quarterly, so please always check the newest blog post for an update if you find a code isn’t working. As of April 1, 2023 my code will change to MACSEWS10 ~ this code will be good through June 30, 2023
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