Friday Pattern Company: Patina Blouse hack

I’m not sure there are many dresses I like more than a hack of the Friday Pattern Company Patina Blouse.  This is my second, but I have so many ideas for different versions… I have lots to say about this dress, and I want to include a warning that my post discussed pregnancy loss, in case you want to stop reading if that’s difficult for you. 

My baby died during my second trimester, just before Christmas. Once we were through that busy period, and I got a bit of time to myself, I set out to make a dress that had been in my head for ages. Sewing really can be helpful in distressing times, and the thinking that went into this dress hack helped me through that initial period of grief.

This gorgeous fabric is a cotton gingham from Grid Fabrics in Glasgow, and I had my eye on it for a long time before I bought it. Every since I brought it home, I’d imagined it being a Patina hack, and I’m so happy with the result. The colours are just fab!

I made my usual size, I think it’s a large. I cut the front pattern pieces between the third and fourth buttonhole, and shortened the back and facing piece in the same way. To make the skirt, I cut a half width of fabric for the back piece, and then two smaller pieces for the left and right front. I decided that I wanted the button placket to go all the way down the dress, and so I measured the width of the facing without seam allowances and allowed for this on my skirt pieces. I folded the end of the skirt piece twice and stitches it down to make the button placket on each of the front skirt pieces. I really like the look of it this way, and prefer it to the first hack I made. I finished it with some lovely Pigeon Wishes Buttons.

There’s a lot of feelings that went into this dress, it feels very special. And so I felt that the photos I used to share it should be equally as special. So on a recent weekend away, when we were lucky enough to have the weather on our side, we stopped off in a few of the most beautiful places in the west of Scotland to get some snaps with epic backdrops. Enjoy!