Wardrobe by Me Dukke Blouse

I've wanted to make the Wardrobe by Me Dukke blouse since I first saw the pattern last year, but somehow it has taken until now for it to find its way onto my sewing table. Better late than never though!

The Dukke blouse is a relaxed-fit button-up blouse with a flat Peter Pan collar, gently curved hemline and ⅞ or ¾ sleeves (I used the ⅞ option). It's designed to be worn either as a blouse or open layered over another top as an overshirt.

The pattern covers bust measurements from 30" to 50", and hip measurements from 32" to 53.25".

I enjoyed sewing my Dukke blouse. It's a relatively straightforward pattern, and didn't contain any steps that I wasn't already familiar with. 

The instructions were fairly easy to follow, although I found it a bit irritating that they contained quite a few typos and little mistakes (I was using a printed version of the pattern). It has to be said that I spend a significant part of my working hours proofreading, so it's likely that this might be less annoying to other people!

One point that I did notice is that the line drawing for the pattern and the diagram accompanying the instructions is wrong – the instructions tell you to sew the buttonholes on the right of the blouse (as is normal for women's clothing), but the line drawing and diagrams show the buttonholes on the left and the buttons on the right. So trust the instructions and your instincts, not the diagrams!

The fabrics that I used for my Dukke blouse are yarn dyed cottons that I bought from The Fabric Boutique. Both fabrics are the same colourway, but I used the checked version for the front and back and stripes for my sleeves and collar. I love how they look together!

In terms of sizing, I sewed a 10 at the bust blending out to a 12 at the hips. Those are the sizes recommended for my current measurements, and I didn't make any fitting changes – the relaxed fit is fairly forgiving. I think that it worked out well and I'm happy with the fit.

One thing that I did slightly differently was to ignore the buttonhole placement recommended in the pattern. Placing buttons at different points within the check pattern looked a bit odd, so instead I decided to use more buttons than recommended and just place a button in the middle of each lighter square down the centre front.

I'm glad that I finally got around to making a Dukke blouse, and I'm pleased with how this version turned out. I think the pattern would be great as a summer cover-up, so I'm already keeping an eye out for some nice white fabric to make another version – that's always a good verdict on a pattern, isn't it?