Dove Blouse Pattern Hack

Sew With Stretch Lace

Ok, I really like this Dove Blouse pattern. I love the bell sleeves. It is fun to wear, floaty, and feminine. When sewn up in this stunning stretch lace in a eye popping red, it is truly a showstopper. Bright red is a current fashion trend for fall and winter and always a seasonal favorite.

In this sew along we cover:

• Converting a woven pattern to work with knit
• French Seams
• Eliminating bust darts
• Avoiding getting your fabric jammed into the throat plate

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The Pattern

The Dove Blouse by Megan Nielsen Patterns is a great woven pattern pullover top — no buttons and no zips. Converting the pattern for knit is pretty easy — you just go down a few sizes. This eliminates the extra ease required for a woven fashion fabric.

The Dove Blouse comes in sizes 0 to 20 and offers three sleeve options. Simply by changing the pattern pieces, you can create an entirely different look.

The pattern offers stylish and contemporary wardrobe essentials. The Dove Blouse is an easy pattern for beginners to understand and makes creating a pretty top super simple.

The Fabric

What is not to love about this Italian Crochet Lace — it is gorgeous. The selvedge edge can be cut away to create a scalloped edge that adds so much detail to your fashion garment. You can simply cut away the salvage and leave the lacy raw edges on the hem and sleeve edges.

The Dove Blouse Hacks

I decided to go with the Dove Blouse pattern because I thought the sleeves would look amazing with the lace edge detail. In order to convert the Dove Blouse from a woven to a knit pattern we needed to change a few things.

V Neck Vs Rounded Neck

The Dove Blouse has a seam up the front to facilitate the sharp V Neck. I wanted to avoid the front seam allowance showing through the lace. The solution was to eliminate the center front seam, put the pattern piece on the fold and cut a rounded neckline.

Curved Hem Vs Straight Hem

Since I wanted to use the scalloped lace edge as my hem, I needed to eliminate the curved hem and hem facings. Simply folding the pattern piece up allows you to craft a straight hem.

Be careful, the pattern pieces are different lengths for the front and back. Measure your length from the under arm for an accurate hem line.

French Seams At the Shoulder Seam and Everywhere Else

l love the look of lace, but not the messy seam allowance peeking through. The best solution is French Seams. You can learn this very helpful technique in the Sew Along Video — see link below.

Neckline Bias Binding

The neckline presented a challenge. I wanted the finished garment to look high-end — so no facings here. Also, applying bias binding in the traditional manner wasn’t going to work well. I did a reverse bias binding that looks perfect with the sheer lace. Details are in the video below.

How To Make Binding Video

The Dove Blouse Pattern Hack Sew Along

Here you can follow my step-by-step instructions to achieve the perfect lace finishes. How cute would this be if you decided to convert the lace blouse into a dress!

Tools

From Minerva:

• Stretch Machine Needle
• Duck Billed Scissors
• Pressing Ham

From Amazon:

• Stretch Machine Needle
• Duck Billed Scissors
• Pressing Ham

More Dove Blouses

You can view all of my Dove Blouse makes along with the original Sew Along video on Minerva to create a woven version of this fabulous Dove Blouse by Megan Nielsen Patterns.

Wrap

How many Dove Blouse makes are too many? I’m up to three and counting. With the sew along, this pattern is a great project for beginning sewists venturing into garment construction. It won’t be long before you are dreaming up your own Dove Blouse pattern hack. You will get lots of lovely compliments when you wear this beautiful blouse.

Happy Sewing,

Sandi

PS

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