Nina Blouse Tour

It’s that time of the year where I pack up a little parcel for my nieces’ birthdays and pray it arrives across the atlantic. Last time the rompers I made for them didn’t turn up for over 6 weeks! Fortuitously this time happens to coincide with a tour for Coffee and Threads latest pattern – the Nina Blouse.

The pattern is a sweet, vintage style blouse that reminds me of one of my favourites from a Japanese pattern book that I made a lot for my youngest in her toddler days. This one however comes with little pintucks at the front, different sleeve options and in sizes 12mths – 12yrs.

These days my daughters seem to be going for a slightly different style so these seemed perfect for the cutest curly haired, soon-to-be-two twins (that I miss dearly!).

I made two is size 2 from white dobby or swiss dot cotton. I decided to keep things really simple and opted for off white buttons too. I used a slightly finer white cotton lawn to make the binding for the armholes and neck, but because of the small size (and sharper armhole curves) the binding ended up pulling a little on the armholes at the back.

The only other struggle was my ongoing inability to use an iron effectively…

To complete the outfits I made trousers from the pattern I used here and here that I’m finally getting round to drafting up properly.

I made both using the full length version of the pattern but finished one with a turned up hem and elasticized the other.

The first pair is from an ex Paul Smith denim look shirting cotton and the second is made with printed viscose from Fabrics Galore.

I’ll be making a fair few more of these in the coming weeks, but back to the blouses….

You can see many other more colourful versions of the pattern on the tour over at Coffee and Thread.