Simplicity 8839

Here’s a pattern I tried. I was in Joann’s with my daughter. We were looking through the pattern books, and I saw this one. Well, I loved the dramatic sleeves and I bought it right away. I decided to make it in a flannel because: a) it’s winter, and b) flannel was on sale at Joann’s at the time, VERY on sale, like the most on sale it ever gets! ($3/yd!)

I chose the bird print. I like birds, so this print appealed to me at first sight. Then I went to work on making a muslin, knowing how basic and bootleg these patterns are for my figure. I made a copy of the bodice front and made 2 major alterations:

1. I re-positioned the bust dart
2. I did an FBA

Most patterns are made for a size B cup bust, and thus won’t fit a larger or smaller breasted woman correctly. Some concessions have been made to address this problem, such as patterns with different cup sizes. These are great, but not all patterns have them, and if you like a pattern that doesn’t, as I did, then you have to alter the pattern if a B cup isn’t your size.

Here’s some pics of the alterations I made to make this blouse fit me:

I made my muslin from my altered block:

After I was satisfied that the blouse would fit me properly, I cut the fashion fabric and made the blouse. I cut view A with View C length. I wasn’t thrilled with the crop top length of A, yet I eventually saw the reason why after I constructed it. The short length helps the fancy sleeves to stand out, and is meant to resemble a bolero, imo. I decided to shorten the shirt to achieve this look. Here’s how it came out:

I’m happy with what I achieved. The shirt fits me well and I got the awesome sleeves I wanted. It wasn’t without the usual wrangling however, and by that I mean not only did I have to alter the pattern, but I had to endure misinformation. This brings me to:

Pattern Faults

The back envelope of a pattern tells us what materials we need to buy in order to make the garment. The back envelope of S8839 tells us to buy 1 package of 1/2″ wide single fold bias tape. Just 1 for all sizes. I included the link so you can see for yourself. Turns out it needed 2. When constructing the sleeves I found this out. 1 pkg just doesn’t have enough yardage to make all the casings for both sleeves. Also, the lengths should be cut longer than the sleeve widths because the tape comes up short during sewing when cut to the sleeve widths. This added up to an extra trip to the store which would’ve been unnecessary had they listed the right amount to begin with.

Other than that, I’m pleased with the results. I really like the neckline of View C, and maybe I’ll get around to making that up one of these days. It was too low cut for me for the winter, but it might make a nice spring blouse.

This is my last post of the year 2019, and I hope you all have a safe and happy new year 🙂

I plan to keep on keepin’ on in 2020, so see you then and there!