Jennifer Lauren Handmade Aisling Blouse - Pattern Tester Review

I was lucky enough to be a pattern tester for the Jennifer Lauren Handmade Aisling Blouse (ages ago!). I was provided the pattern to test and give feedback on. All opinions here are my own!

This is a brilliant pattern. I wasn't sure about the square neck line as I would never usually choose this style and puffy sleeves under cardis are not great but was very pleasantly surprised. I intended to make the version with no buttons as my test version but cut the wrong one so buttons it was!

I made it in a soft floaty viscose that I got from someones stash on ebay and the buttons were from my Granny's button tin. The 14 C cup fitted straight from the pattern with no tweaking, normally I would do a broad back adjustment but it was not needed.

During lockdown I have made another one, this version is the one I intended to make as a tester!

Again I used a soft floaty viscose, this time it was from The Fabric Guys, it sneaked into my basket when I was buying cotton for mask making (more in another post). 

I have had so many compliments about these blouses, more than anything else I have made. They will get a lot of wear when something other than casual clothes are required again!

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Colette Moneta

This is the second Colette Moneta I have made and I still love the pattern. I made the first one in 2016 as a wearable toile for a job I was doing and have been meaning to make it in better suited fabric since. The first was in a not very stretchy cotton jersey which didn't lie very well so this time I used a viscose jersey that is nice and thick but not so heavy it pulls the skirt squint. 

I made it at the start of February and it was the perfect dress to wear to my Granny's funeral, she was a flower lover! I have worn it once since and I am sure it will get lots more wear once life begins to look a bit more normal again. 

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Makeup brush sleeping bag and some embroidery.

Way back in January, seems like a lifetime ago, I decided to try my hand at embroidering over some hand lettering, it's a lot harder than it looks! 

It is a motto I firmly believe in and at the time my Granny was slowly deteriorating in her care home and I was having to spend more and more of my time there. This was a good thing to look at to remind me what really mattered. She died on the 21st February and the relief I felt for her was immense, she was 103 and really had had enough. I am glad she never lived to see the pandemic grow arms and legs, that would have been awful for her. 

Another non clothing related sewing project was my makeup brush sleeping bag! I rarely wear makeup and was fed up cleaning the dust off the brushes before I used them so this is the perfect solution. I sewed two rectangles together with a bit of ribbon sandwiched in one side , turned it right side out, folded the bottom up and sewed channels of varying width for my brushes, simple. You can roll it up and tie a bow to keep it together. Much neater than an jumbled mess of brushes at the bottom of the drawer...

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