Batik Oakridge Blouse

For Mother's Day, way back in May, I made a Sewaholic Oakridge bow blouse for my mom, but only recently got some photos of her wearing it.

She admired the one I made for myself during Selfish Sewing Week so much so that she even commented on the blog post I wrote about it on Imagine Gnats. Martha is not a big blog commenter, so I knew that she must have been feeling particularly amorous about the Oakridge...

The only change I made to the pattern was to make 3/4 length sleeves by cutting at the "lengthen or shorten here" line and sewing them with a narrow hem.

For fabric, I used a turquoise rayon batik that Martha herself had given me, so I knew she would like it. It has flowers in purples, blues and greens running diagonally across the fabric. I didn't worry too much about pattern matching- I had a feeling I would never get it quite right and I was pretty sure it wouldn't matter anyway. After testing out several button options, I ended up making fabric-covered buttons with a kit I bought at Daiso. They're a little hard to button- they get stuck in the buttonholes- but you don't really need to unbutton the blouse anyway, as Oakridge has enough ease that you can slip it over your head.

I had a little bit of trouble with the curved hem. I should really just finish all my curved hems with bias tape to get them smooth...

I think the blouse is looking pretty good on her! Next time I might size down for her. The shoulders are a bit wide and the bodice a bit long. But serviceable!