After almost six months of winter, spring is finally here! The flowers are blooming, the birds are back and the sun is out! The world is suddenly awake and vibrant with colors.  I guess you’ll never understand this gushing over spring until you experience looong gloomy winter days like us poor mortals here in the Czech Republic.

And what better way to welcome this wonderful season than sewing myself a butterfly blouse?

That’s exactly what I did yesterday morning.  I’ve been itching to make one the moment I saw this tutorial on my now favorite website.  I love loose blouses and asymmetrical ones but I thought they were hard to make especially since I’m very new in sewing.  After staring at the pattern several times I knew I just had to give it a try.

Butterfly sleeve blouse, the first ever blouse I’ve sewn myself.

This pattern is for loose fit US sizes S-L.  I’m EU size 34 or XS so I figured it would be too big for me.  I used an old blouse to calculate the right measurements or adjustments I had to do.

These are the measurements I came up with:

• Width: 86 cm (including 1/2 cm seam allowance on each side)
• Length:  76 cm x 2 since blouse is folded in half (also including ½ cm seam allowance on each side)

The other adjustments I made are for the V neckline and for the shirring length as shown on the photo above.  Just click to enlarge.  For the step by step tutorial, please click here.

So it’s warm and sunny out again today.  My husband and I went to the pond just a few meters from our flat for some fresh air.  You bet I wore my new blouse.  Here it is in its fluttery glory:

Front view.  Thank you to my instant photographer – my husband – who gamely took photos after photos of me and my blouse.

Back view.  It’s a pretty blouse, isn’t it? I think I’ll make another one soon.  It would be nice to wear it with shorts in summer or just by itself  when you’re at the beach.

Side view.  Yes, people in Europe usually sit in the sun to read or just to laze the day away.  In Asia it seems like everyone hides from the sun. 🙂I think the photographer got too excited and didn’t want to stop clicking but ok, enough with the photos. I’d like to say thank you to CraftPassion.com for this easy to sew and really pretty blouse that would be one of my favorites for a long time.

And also, even if spring means a lot of itching and sneezing for me, I’m really happy it’s here.  I wish it would stay warm for at least half a year.

I just can’t help it.  One more photo of spring and the brightness it brings before I go.