In thinking about the things I wanted to fill this whole ‘carefully curated wardrobe’ with, one wardrobe gap I identified was a set of classic, elegant blouses to wear with my separates. I want to move away from living in sheath dresses and build in a bit more versatility with some staple-but-lovely separate pieces. It’s a cliche, I’m sure, but I want Olivia Pope’s wardrobe on a real person’s salary 
The first time I saw Sew Over It’s Anderson Blouse, I thought it would be perfect to fill that gap in my wardrobe. I was a little nervous about it though, so I didn’t go straight for it and instead I did a bit of research, mostly checking out other people’s makes on Instagram/Pinterest while I thought about it.
Eventually I decided to go for it and make it up in plain black. I had ordered the black crepe fabric from Sew Over It a while ago, intending to use it for collars/pocket features on other blouses, but I figured I’d actually use it instead for this blouse as my wearable toile.
Sizing and Alterations
I sewed up the smallest size. According to my measurements I should have been a size up but the amount of ease suggested by the finished garment measurements table quite frankly scared me so I decided I could afford to go down a size. The only alteration I made was to lengthen the sleeve by about 2″ – although next time I think I’ll reduce that to more like 1″.
Construction
The instructions were nice and clear, the only point at which I struggled was in dealing with the front facing at the shoulder seam. I think I’ve misunderstood the instructions because it left an unfinished shoulder seam inside and I’m not sure that was correct. I decided on a little bias binding for that seam but next time I might try and figure out where I went wrong. I French-seamed all the other seams so it looks pretty darn good inside.
The results
I love the gathering at the shoulders and the way the neckline hangs:
The pleat and cuffs on the sleeve are also lovely and were nice and easy to sew. I haven’t decided on the buttons (in the picture below I’ve pinned the two that I’m considering on one cuff, just to get a feel for them) so it’s not 100% finished yet, but I couldn’t resist taking a few pictures for this post.
As it happened, Baby Boy woke up from his nap just as I finished putting on my accessories and since there was no chance I’d be able to get dressed up again later today, I decided he could make his debut in one of my ‘me made’ posts, so here he his fresh from sleep and a bit groggy!
I love the blouse and definitely intend to make at least one more, on which I might try to remove a bit more ease as it still feels like there’s a lot of blouse to tuck in, and I will pretty much only be wearing this tucked in for work. I won’t be doing black-on-black too often, don’t worry.. on my sewing list I have some nice fabrics waiting to be made up into trousers and skirts. If only I had more time!!
– Michelle –