Vogue 8747 — A Classic White Blouse

Hi, friends! I hope your week is off to a good start. I have another finished sewing project for you tonight — a classic white button-front blouse. This shirt fits a definite hole in my wardrobe. While I have several white shirts, none of them would be considered the classic, wear-with-anything staple.

I have had this pattern, Vogue 8747, in my stash for a while. The current Pattern Review Fitted Blouse contest is what convinced me to pull it out and sew it up. Fortunately, my muslin didn’t reveal too many alteration challenges.

I cut the size 14 with a C bust cup and the fit was pretty close to perfect right out of the gate. I made a 3/8″ high round back adjustment and moved the shoulder seams forward 1/2″. I shortened the bodice 1/2″ above the waistline. The sleeves were a bit too wide at the wrist so I took them in about 1″ tapering up to just above the elbow. Finally, I added 1″ to each back princess seam at the hem tapering up to the waistline since my hips fell in a larger size. I meant to add the width at the side seam but got my pattern piece backwards when making the adjustment. Fortunately, it looks fine like this!

The pattern is pretty straightforward to sew up. If you have made a few shirts with button bands, collar stands, and cuffs, you won’t really need to look at the directions. And I prefer the directions in Pam Howard’s Craftsy class for shirt construction if you are looking to make a button-down.

The fabric has been in my stash for a little while — a white cotton sateen from Theory. I got it from the roll ends section of Emma One Sock (surprised?). She described it as a bottom weight fabric but I think it is perfect for a dress shirt since it is not so sheer to require an under layer. If you have ever felt a Theory dress shirt, you know how soft that cotton is. This shirt feels like a dream!

For construction, I decided I didn’t like the look of top stitching on the fabric, so I used my stitch in the ditch foot to invisibly finish the cuffs, button band, and collar stand. I also used a downloadable sleeve placket instead of the included pattern piece. There are great instructions for placket insertion on the Threads website. As with most commercial patterns, the sleeve head has too much ease so I put the excess into little gathers at the top to match the gathers on the front of the shirt.

Finally, I used my new button-hole cutter to open the button holes. What a great little gadget!

Enjoy the rest of your week. I hope to be back later this week with something tasty!