Disclaimer: This article is all about drafting patterns and choosing the right fabric but not about sewing the piece. If relevant, I’ll attach video instructions on how to do so at the end.
These are the sewing pattern instructions for the gathered blouse. This design is a gathered flowy blouse with a heart neckline and front and back yokes. It uses the casual shirt foundation because the shoulders need to end at the shoulder bone or the top wouldn’t be stable. It has gathered sleeves at the top and bottom and a 1:2 ratio gathered tier for both front and back.
DIFFICULTY
These are the main characteristics of this pattern:
This pattern should take you around 1h to draft and 2h to sew (both times assuming you are a beginner)
This pattern uses one type of fabric and it works best with natural fibers that are light weight and flowy.
You could interface the front and back yoke for more stability, I didn’t do it in my example but I would use a medium weight interface.
| # | Name | Fabric Cut |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Front yoke | Cut 2 main, on fold |
| 2 | Back yoke | Cut 2 main, on fold |
| 3 | Sleeve | Cut 2 main |
| 4 | Front bottom | Cut 1 main, on fold |
| 5 | Back bottom | Cut 1 main, on fold |
This pattern shows a heart neckline:
Front: Start the heart shape at 6cm from the edge of the shoulder and finish it 12cm below the basic neckline
Back: The shoulder length has to be the same as the front, in this case 6cm. You can make it as low as you want, just make sure the neckline creates a 90 degree angle with the centre back
This is the neckline I chose, but feel free to make it any shape you want. For example round or squared.
To draft the yoke, draw a line 2.5cm below the new neckline at centre front and separate both front and back patterns into a top and a bottom piece.
The yokes are cut twice to add coverage to the bust area.
In this step we add the gathers for the bottom pieces. How many gathers will depend on you, I chose to do a 1:2 ratio because it was a thicker fabric.
To add them, draw vertical lines along the pattern pieces. Cut through the lines and separate the pieces as much as you want (In my case ratio 1:2). Finally, redraw all the lines.
Note: A 1:2 ratio means that I double the length. For example, if you start with a length of 30cm from side to side, the final length would be 60cm, so you would add a total of 30cm between the partitions.
For the sleeve draft a low cap height short sleeve.
To add the gathers we will follow the same method as for the step before.
The last step is to add the notches, pattern information and seam allowances.
I hope you enjoyed these Sewing Pattern Instructions for a Gathered Blouse and good luck sewing the piece!
