Tropical Print Blouse, Loving Lutterloh

I Love tropical fish, shells and palm trees.

Nothing speaks resort, summer, and casual sophistication to me than white linen pants topped with a colorful tropical print  or crisp striped shirt. There are no palm trees on this fabric, but brightly colored fish, and gorgeous shells abound.

Living at the beach in a resort like La Paz,  that is the center of ecotourism and the capital of the state of Baja California Sur,  is just plain fun…on good days. Lately most days are good days.

I would wear this blouse in my old life in Silicon Valley, but I love that I am here at the beach and it is the middle of March and by midday I had to roll up my sleeves or roast! So here I am at Starbuck’s waiting for my lime refresher after a hard day of breakfast with friends, a trip and fall, that did not thankfully tear my favorite pants, a stop at  Home Depot and now a cool refresher. How did that cheese cake with raspberry  end up in front of me?

On to details of the blouse.

It is a Lutterloh pattern. Most of what I sew is Lutterloh. Their designs are wonderful. The patterns always fit, and the pattern pieces can be mixed and matched. Take a sleeve here, a collar there, a princess seam to complete the look.

The Big 4 and even most other patterns are expensive, I cannot buy them here, there are NO patterns here, and I have to do too much slicing and dicing of the patterns to make them fit.  It gives me a headache talking about it!

Here is the fashion illustration: What I love about this silhouette it has a collar stand, and  cuffs. Notice the little black dressform at knee height on the model. This means that the pattern is designed for a fuller figure.  Based on my measurements, I am not considered a member of that club, by the designers. So when drafting the pattern, I used  smaller numbers on their special scale. I explain the system in this older post.LUTTERLOH SYSTEM

I made view 3, the white blouse blowing in the breeze. I also love that the back has nice shaping darts, I did not want to look like I was wearing a smock or maternity top.

Made for fuller figure, but I cut it down, fits perfectly

Since I am short 5’1″  and short waisted, I have to adjust for my waist, and shortened the  long sleeves. These are simple and quick adjustments, and I know that I have to do them on most garments.  By shortening the waist I did loose some of the drama of the hi-lo hem, but it still shows a little difference.

And if it were much longer it would be, well old ladyish, and I am NOT going there!

My Beloved, while personally trained in the art (by me) of making me look my best in these photos doesn’t always remember his training. And he is patient enough to take the photos so I don’t overly criticize him.

If the shots are really unflattering, I do ask for more attempts.

I have trained him to take two or three of the same pose. We re working on this.

With that in mind here is a back view. Some wrinkles, but you can still see the shape. And we were in  Starbuck’s. Mexicans are very laid-back folk, but the photo shoot made them curious, and therefore put a little pressure on the Beloved to get the shot, and then sit down.

Here I am in my hallway at home with one more side view

Here is a back view. In reality it fits beautifully and accentuates my waist.

And you can also see that there is a bit of a hi-lo hem goin’ on.

I have buttons, buttons, buttons, boxes of buttons, tins of buttons, buttons sorted by color, by size, by material. I did not have enough of any button for this top. So I used several different colors and shapes of buttons. Back in Fresno in the early 80’s my best friend Greta and I would shop for fabric on self-proclaimed  sewing holidays and take off  from work. For quite awhile all the fabric stores were selling buttons at TEN CENTS a card. We sucked  up buttons. We traded buttons. I still have some of those buttons.

Here they are on the blouse and cuffs:

One disclaimer: I do have bunches of SHANK buttons that would match, but that means HAND SEWING.

The pattern calls for a continuous lap at the sleeve opening, but I have never like that finish.

So I made a sleeve placket and I am proud of it. Blogs are  so much fun, a time to show off and brag!

There you have it: a bright, summery shirt, with whimsy and nice construction details.

The fabric was a gift: $00.00

Buttons:                         $0.10

Pattern:                           $0.50

Saw versions of this blouse in Nieman Marcus for $268.00

I love to sew with Lutterloh!

Thanks for visiting.