Pretty Easy Blouse Tutorial
A more recent trend in lolita fashion is the cropped sheer blouse that’s meant to be worn only under a JSK. They’re inexpensive, but they’re also very easy to make on your own.
Yes, the Mannequin Corner is a mess. That’s just how this blog is, these days.
Due to the gathered nature of this blouse, you can get carefree and almost sloppy with how you draft this, and still have a good result.
The front and back are the same shape.
And the whole thing is constructed like a raglan sleeve:
For the front, draw a box that’s (the measure of your fullest part of your bust+10″)/2. Cut off the top corners so that there’s a 12″ long slanted line on each corner. The angle of this line controls how baggy the armpits of your blouse are, which also controls how easily you can raise your arms over your head. A more vertical line will give you smoother armpits and make raising your hands harder, and a line closer to 45 degrees will give you baggier armpits but a lot of overhead motion.
For the sleeve, wrap a tape measure around your arm where you want the sleeve to be the fullest, and add or take away fullness until you like how baggy the sleeves are in your mind. I wish I had a better way to describe that, but all I can come up with is “visualize your dream sleeve and then measure that illusion in your mind” and that also doesn’t help.
Give the top of your sleeve some slanted lines that are the same length as the slanted top part of your front and back.
Again, since this is meant to be full and blousey, the exact measurements aren’t super important. What’s important is that the left and right side are symmetrical, that the overall size of the blouse is larger than your total bust measurement, that the slanting lines at the top of the front and back pieces are the same length as the slanting lines at the top of the sleeves, and that you have enough room up top to put your head and shoulders through.
Once you have your pieces, it’s time to cut out of your fabric. This pattern is meant to be used with something drapey and thing, that gathers well. It’s usually made of something sheer or with very little coverage. Chiffon, voile, chantilly lace all work well. I used some $4 raschel sheet lace because I wasn’t sure this pattern would work.
When picking your fabric, keep in mind what kind of JSK you’re putting over this blouse. What level of detail do you need to keep it balanced with the rest of the look?
If you’ve got the kind of fabric that frays, like chiffon or crepe, finish off the edges of all four pieces before you start assembling them.
Start by sewing the slanted edges on the sleeves to the slanted edges on the front and back. You’ll end up with your neckline edge sewn and the whole thing will start to look blouse-shaped.
If you followed my pattern up there, your sleeve pieces will look taller than mine. Mine are sad and flat. Give them some poof and don’t make your sleeve top edges 4″ like I did.
Now, you’ll have your sleeve seams and the side seams of the blouse body open. Sew those shut, so that you have an awkward tubey oversized blouse.
You now need to decide how you’re applying your elastic. I used the elastic-thread-in-the-bobbin tactic and just did three or four lines of elastic shirring. I did this because I didn’t have any 1/4″ elastic and didn’t want to go to work on my day off.
Other good methods include using bias tape or ribbon to make a little applied casing, and then threading 1/4″ elastic through; hemming the neckline edge and putting elastic in the hem; or pinning the elastic down and stretching it as you sew.
Whatever style you pick, make sure you’re comfortable with it.
Because we are about to commit to doing a lot of it. I started up with my neckline. Since my lace had a scalloped selvedge, I used that edge for my neckline, and got a good result. If you don’t have a nice looking edge, you might want to sew some lace onto this edge, just to make the blouse a little more extravagant looking. Otherwise, make sure you have a nice-looking hem.
Start by going around your neckline edge and gathering that in where you like the look. It’s important to do the neckline first, because that’ll let you accurately judge where you want the other lines of elastic to go.
The next line that I did was under the bust. If you have boobs, putting the elastic line under the bust stops your blouse from pulling up and bunching when you lift up your arms. You can decide if you want to trim the rest of the blouse underneath the elastic line, or if you don’t want to do that.
Now’s also the time to run your line of elastic around the bottom of the sleeves, to draw them in to gather them. Depending on where you put the line of elastic, your sleeve can be many shapes.
Since I wanted some hime sleeves (or hime-inspired), I cut a half-circle sleeve extension and attached it to the end of my sleeve. Slapped some nice custom-dyed lace onto the end and boom, fancy sleeve. There’s still a line of elastic at the point where the sleeve extension meets the sleeve of the blouse, which makes it cute and puffy.
Tie off your elastic ends and clip your threads and you’re good to go.
Anyhow, this whole thing took less than half a day to make even with only one hand, and ended up being very comfortable and a much better match to this JSK than the one I had originally planned for it. The lolita crop-top isn’t a good blouse for everything, but it’s a nice little thing to whip up in an afternoon to expand your wardrobe.
