My Mary Poppins inspired blouse with B6563

When I saw the film Mary Poppins returns I fell in love with the costumes – especially the dotted blouse Mary wears. I wanted to make something similar for myself but it was very tricky to find a proper fabric. Then I bumped into this lovely dotty viscose that has red, black and blue dots on creamy background and I knew I had what I wanted. I started with the familiar B6562 pattern that I have used here and here.

I have misplaced the original pattern pieces that I had traced so I had to retrace the pattern. (Yes, I know I could just cut out the pieces but then I couldn’t use the other sizes.) I forgot that the sizes ran large and cut out the size 10 which meant I later had to take in from the side seams and narrow the shoulders a bit.

However, before cutting anything out I decided to make a use of my pin tuck foot. I have tried it but I have never actually used it on any garment. The pin tuck foot has grooves that make it easy to make rows of pin tucks that are equidistant from each other. The tucks are made with a double needle and a tightened bobbin thread. The polkadot fabric was very useful here since I could follow the rows of dots and get the first pin tuck completely straight. I made eight pin tucks on both sides of the blouse front.

I cut out the front pieces only after I had sewn the pin tucks on. This meant that I did not have to worry about the fabric width reduction due to the pin tucks.

This summer has been really cold in Finland, so I decided to make this blouse long sleeved. I used the B6563 puffed sleeve pattern piece but lengthened the sleeve to the full length. I added a slit that I bound with a bias binding and used the cuffs from the Sew Over It Pussy Bow blouse.

It’s amazing how different this blouse looks with long sleeves and made out of viscose and compared to the blouses that I made previously out of thickish cotton. I really love how it turned out. It drapes beautifully and looks vintage-y and feminine at the same time which was my goal.

Of course, my Poppins is not the exact replica of the 1930s Mary Poppins starred by Emily Blunt. Mine is more of a 1940s version with this Sage green wool skirt. And neither do I own a magical carpet bag or a talking umbrella! But who can say what a Mary Poppins would wear in the year of 2019 anyway?

Thank you for reading and subscribe if you want to follow me on my sewing adventures! Happy sewing!

Katja