Thursday, July 15, 2021

Roseclair Wrap Blouse

Continuing my woven wrap dress experiment (aka, the wrapstravaganza), this time in wrap blouse format... click for parts one and two of this wrapventure.


This is the latest pattern from Cashmerette, the Roseclair Dress. The Roseclair is woven wrap dress that goes to size 32 (62" bust, 62" hip) and includes three views: View A is an ankle-length three-tiered skirt with bishop sleeves and large angled cuffs, View B is a knee-length full skirt with short sleeves, and View C is a knee-length full skirt with puff sleeves. 


As a wearable muslin to check the fit, I sewed the unofficial "View D," which is a blouse/top version. I cut the front and back skirts at the View A line, constructed the pattern as instructed, and then did a small 5/8 inch hem.


For my Roseclair I cut a size 20 C/D graded to a 22 at the waist, per the Cashmerette size calculator. I think it worked pretty well, although after wearing it I'm wondering if a straight size 20 would have worked better. 

The pattern has lots of darts to help with shaping, but I'm finding it a little loose under the bust and at the waist.

I chose a crisp cotton lawn from my stash, originally purchased from Belleboo from when I lived in Bangkok.

The Roseclair has puffy sleeves. A short puffy sleeve with puff on both ends, a short sleeve puffed at the sleeve cap, or this third option, which I chose. They call them bishop sleeves. They're both gathered at the sleeve cap and voluminous through the arm, gathered into a cuff. They're cut at an interesting angle so they hang nicely when your arm is bent.

Am I a puffy sleeve person? I'm leaning towards yes, but there's still a part of me that feels like Jerry Seinfeld in his puffy shirt when I wear them. 

The Roseclair has no closures, just inner and outer ties at the side seams. I kinda wish it had a "belt" tie, more like the Appleton (or the Elodie, my most recent woven wrap project). I like a belt; makes me feel secure. I think that could be easy to hack on the Roseclair, though. 

I also don't love how the internal and external side ties pull the side seams to the front. And I find them weirdly difficult to tie all the way over on the side seams. This could also be easily solved with a belt/longer tie.

The Roseclair is very easy to sew. The only fiddly part to sew is probably the bias-bound neckline, but it's really very doable, especially if you use a crisp cotton lawn like I did. 

The only construction changes I made were to only interface half of the cuffs, rather than the whole pattern piece, and to cut the back skirt on the fold because I had plenty of fabric to do so.

I'm very happy with the coverage on the wrap skirt, as well as the wrap top. The skirt is basically double coverage in the front. And on the blouse, I'm finding there is no gaping at all. I do find myself fiddling with it a little bit: does the wrap go under the boob, or across?


In the end, I quite like my Roseclair, I think it fits pretty well and looks nice. But is it "me," I wonder? With the puffy sleeves and the print it feels a bit girlier than I typically go for? 

But I think I like the look overall, especially paired with my favorite linen Glebe Pants. Time will tell!

I've already made a second Roseclair, with a few minor tweaks to the fit and to hack long ties onto it... coming soon!


I don't know what I'm looking at here with the side eye, but this photo made me laugh.