You can never have too many flattering blouses in your closet. Paired with pants or a skirt, they’ll take you through practically any occasion, from work to a big night out.

And if you love silk, well then your wardrobe isn’t complete without a silk blouse.

For this blouse used the Butterick B6770 pattern, which I bought in electronic format. Let's start with a look at how to download and assemble a pattern.

Electronic patterns in PDF format are great because you can shop patterns from all over the world from the comfort of home. The only downside is that you have to print them out yourself. Most electronic patterns come in US letter and A4 paper formats. Choose the paper size used in your region. You print them out and then tape or glue the pages together.

In this case, I found the B6770 pattern on simplicity.com. After paying for it, I just downloaded the pattern and instructions from my account in their Digital Patterns section. In this case there were actually two pattern files. In each case, the first page has a figure showing how the sheets should be assembled to make the pattern. 

Note: Be sure that you print at 100% or “actual size.” Check the printing settings in your PDF reader to make sure the program is not shrinking the page to fit within the printable margins for your printer – if you forget to check this, your finished blouse will be too small! Always print and check the page with the size-check square first!

You might not have to tape together the whole pattern sheet. The pattern includes six sizes and three sleeve variants. Pattern pieces 1 and 8 are drawn for each size separately. I’ve marked the sizes on the layout plan above. (If you’re wondering, the XS and S versions of piece 1 are in the other pattern file.)

This blouse has three sleeve options:  a butterfly sleeve (A), a tied cuff sleeve (B), and a sleeve with a ruffle (C). You’ll notice the blouse for variant C is a bit longer. That’s because it has a belt tie. Both lengths are marked on pattern piece 1, so if you want to use a belt tie, just cut the longer variant.

For this tutorial, I chose variant A with fluttery butterfly sleeves.

• For A you’ll need pieces 1–4, 8, and 9. (Don’t cut out pieces 5, 6, and 7.)
• For B you’ll need pieces 1–5, 8, and 9.
• For C you’ll need pieces 1–3 and 6–10.

If you decide to use bias tape instead of the neckline facing, you won’ t need pattern pieces 8 and 9.

You can print the pattern on ordinary office paper (80 gsm). I prefer printing patterns on flimsier paper though (60 gsm). It’s a bit easier to work with.

Print just the pages you need for your blouse variant. It might help to print out the page with the pattern layout and mark the pages for yourself. Then just choose the page range in your print dialogue. And don’t forget that the page number in the file is not the same as the page number marked on the layout plan. (In this case, page 1 is the layout plan and page 2 is pattern page 1.) Check that you are printing at 100% or "actual size."

Glue or tape together the pages by number, lining up the markings. In this case the green lines and diamonds should overlap exactly. 

The instructions include a table with fabric requirements in yards for 45 or 60 inch width bolts (114 or 150 cm). Sartor uses metric measures, so I’ve done the math for you. You can find fabric requirements in centimeters in the table below.

If you want a longer version of A or B, you’ll need a bit more – 4 inches (10 cm) for the wider fabric, 8 inches (20 cm) for the narrow one.

Converting to metric?

Choose your size according to the size table in the instructions. Here are their metric equivalents.

• XS: bust 75–78 cm, corresponds to European size 34
• S: bust 80–83 cm, size 36
• M: bust 86–92 cm, size 38/40
• L: bust 96–102 cm, size 42/44
• XL: bust 107–112 cm, size 46/48
• XXL: bust 117–122 cm, size 50/52
   

When I went out looking for fabric for this project I knew one thing for sure: it had to be crêpe de chine! It is the absolute classic for a light silk blouse that works equally well for any occasion, dressy and casual. The pattern I wanted to use for this tutorial is designed for a fine, drapey material, so crêpe de chine was a natural choice.

Other fabrics that would work for this pattern include silk charmeuse, silk crêpe georgette, and other silk crêpes such as crêpe marocain.

Aside from silk, you might also consider a quality rayon fabric. Try a crêpe or charmeuse made from lyocell, a cupro crêpe georgette, or a flowy EcoVero.

How much fabric you’ll need will depend on the pattern and size of the blouse. I’ll get to that later.

The white blouse is a classic that can come to your rescue in any number of situations. Throw it on with jeans or wear it with a long, dressy skirt depending on whether you’re grabbing coffee with friends or heading for the ballet. 

For this tutorial, I chose white crêpe de chine, because it also gives me a chance to show you a few tricks specific to sewing with sheer white fabrics.

There are at least two basic shades of white – cold and warm.

Be sure to match the thread color to the fabric. Every manufacturer offers a selection of white and off-white thread shades. For my ivory crêpe de chine I chose the ivory thread that matched it most closely.
 

To be honest, crêpe de chine takes some patience. It's a squirmy fabric, that always seems to be trying to get away. But I’ll show you two simple ways to cut crêpe de chine without losing your mind.

It goes without saying that you should pre-shrink your fabric before cutting. Steam the whole piece with a steam iron.

This pattern from Butterick includes seam allowances. Patterns from other sources (Burda, Ottobre) may not, in which case you can trace the pattern onto your pattern paper, draw on the seam allowance, and then cut the pattern.

Do you have a cutting mat and cutting wheel?

In that case, lay the fabric on the mat and straighten it out using the guidelines. Lay the pattern pieces on the fabric and weigh it down thoroughly. Cut precisely with a cutting wheel.

Transfer all markings to the fabric. Use white chalk on dark fabric. On light fabric, mark with cuts, pins, or basting stitch. Do not use colored chalk on white fabric, it is a pain to get out.

Lay a sheet or blanket on your cutting table. Use the edge of the table or a tailor’s square as a straight edge.

Lay the pattern piece on the fabric and, again, weigh it down well. Cut carefully with scissors. It is a little slower than with a cutting wheel, but the bedsheet will keep the fabric from slipping as you cut.
 

For the blouse variant with the butterfly sleeves, I cut out the front and back panels, two sleeves, and the back yoke. I decided to replace the facing with bias tape because white crêpe de chine is so sheer and I didn’t want the facing piece to show through.

The front and back panels, the yoke, and the facing pieces are cut on the fold. The pattern piece is only half of the piece. Place the pattern piece so that the side marked “center fold” is up against the fold of the fabric.

Pieces 3, 8, and 9 – the yoke and facing pieces – should be backed with fusible interfacing. Use our extra fine fusible interfacing for silk or something similar (e.g. Vlieseline G 785).

When backing sheer white fabric, use a nude interfacing. When you are wearing the blouse, the interfacing will be less noticible.

What will you need?

Silk crêpe de chine is a very fine fabric, sewn best with a thin needle. You don’t have to use the finest needle (no. 60) though and you don't even need special thread. Ideally, reach for a microtex or sharp needle. If you haven’t got one, a universal machine needle will work fine.

That said, you really should use very fine straight pins, ideally 0.4 mm.

You will need:

• Machine needle No. 70 (microtex/sharp) or standard/universal.
• Universal polyester sewing thread
• Fine needle for hand sewing
• Fine pins for silk
   

Before you start sewing, take a scrap of your fabric and test the stitch length and top thread tension. Try a stitch length of 2–2.5 mm to see what gives you the best results (on my machine, 2.2 mm was the neatest). The thread tension depends on your machine, so you will have to rely on a combination of your own experience and the machine's operating manual. For lightweight fabrics it is generally a bit higher than for ordinary fabrics.

Crêpe de chine has some natural elasticity and tends to pucker slightly when sewing. However, any ripples should iron out.

The back panel is gathered and sewn to a small yoke. You start by gathering the fabric between the marks (the tiny circles on the pattern piece).

Sew inside of the future seam line so that when you go back to sew the seam, you won’t sew over your gathering stitches (that would make it hard to pull the gathering thread out). The seam allowances on this pattern are 5/8" (1.5 cm).

You can gather by hand or use a long machine stitch with low tension on the top thread. (You use the stitching only for gathering and pull it out after the pieces are joined.)

Pin the yoke to the gathered edge of the back panel and sew together. Be careful: you are sewing together two opposite curves so proceed inch by inch and be careful not to stretch the fabric.

Trim your seam allowance and neaten it with an overlock or zigzag stitch and then press towards the yoke.

The front panel is gathered at the shoulders. Proceed as you did before, gathering between the marks. 

Lay the front panel face-to-face on the finished back. Pin at the sides and sew from the sleeve opening to the bottom.

The main seams on fine fabrics, especially if they are sheer, are best sewn using a French seam. It looks very neat: the cut edge gets hidden inside of the finished seam itself.

1 – First lay the pieces together wrong sides facing and sew at a little less than half the seam allowance from the edge — 1/4" (7 mm).

2 – Now fold the seam back along the stitch line so the pieces are face to face and press. The rough edge is on inside of the fold, as shown in the photo below.


3 – Sew again a little farther from the edge than before — 3/8" (8–9 mm). Press.

Inevitably, the seam will show through this fine, white fabric. But it is a smooth, neat line that looks quite professional. Nice job.

Get your sleeves ready. Sew the under-sleeve seams with a French hem.

Insert the sewn sleeves into the blouse. These sleeves are raglan, which means that there are no shoulder seams for this blouse. It comes together at the shoulder when you attach the sleeve. This time we’ll use an ordinary seam, not a French one.

Arrange the armhole of the blouse face side up. In the picture below you can see the side seam is right in the center at the bottom, on the left is the front panel with its prepared gathers, and on the right is the back panel with the yoke.

Place the sleeve face-to-face on the armhole, aligning the seam with the side seam and pin in place. Sew around in two passes, starting from under the arm to the top in front and then again in back. Make sure the marks on the sleeve opening and the sleeve line up.

After sewing, trim the seam allowance and finish the edge with an overlock or zigzag stitch. Press the seam allowance towards the sleeve.

You can finish the neckline with facing or bias tape. The bias tape option is narrower and a little less noticeable for sheer fabric. If you are using darker fabric or if having the facing show through doesn’t bother you, go ahead and do it that way.

Here I’ll show how to finish the neck with bias tape. If you want to use the facing, pop over to my post on sewing a silk dress for summer for detailed instructions on how to do it.

Find a fabric scrap that will let you cut a bias tape. Cut diagonally (at a 45º angle to the grain). Cut an inch-wide strip (25 mm) as long as half the neck opening plus 2 or 3 inches to spare (6 cm). Press the long sides of the strip to the middle, either by hand or using a bias tape maker. The resulting tape will be a half inch wide (12 mm).

Two lengths of bias tape will be joined together at the same angle as the V-neck of the blouse.

Place the two pieces of bias tape together face to face. Mark the angle of the joining seam at the end using the pattern for the front panel or front facing as shown below.  Sew the end at the angle marked.
 

Before attaching the bias tape, we’ll reinforce the neckline all along the front panel and sleeves to keep it from stretching (don’t worry about the yoke in the back).

Set top thread tension to 1–2 and sew along the neck opening about 1/2" (1.2 cm) from the edge without locking the stitches at the start and end. Leave a tail of thread at each end to tug on. Gently pull on the tails as you might for gathering, but don’t go that far – all you want is the tiniest hint of a wave.

Now the neckline won’t stretch out as you sew and the finished neckline will lie flat instead of sticking up.

Lay the bias tape face-to-face on the neckline. The seam at the V of the bias tape must line up with the V of the neckline. Keep an eye on your seam allowance: the bias tape has a narrow seam allowance, but the seam must be 5/8" (1.5 cm) from the edge of the neckline.

Sew the bias tape to the neckline. Start at the point of the V and sew towards the back panel on one side and then again on the other.

On the back panel fold the ends of the bias tape as shown in the picture below and trim away the excess length. They should meet in a diagonal seam.

Sew the tapes together by hand or machine. Trim back the seam and press open.

Go back and trim the seam allowance all around the neckline. Fold the bias tape to the inside and press in place. Sew about 3/8" (1 cm) from the edge.

All that’s left now is to hem the ends of the sleeves and the bottom of the blouse. We'll use different methods for each.

Because butterfly sleeves have a curved edge, a classic wide turnover hem won’t work here. We’ll use a narrow folded hem, also known as a baby hem.

The classic method involves sewing three times, but to keep this one from being to thick, I only sewed twice. Here’s how.

The bottom hem of the blouse is straight, so we’ll use a classic foldover hem here – but we’ll use a trick borrowed from the baby hem to make it a little neater since we're working with a sheer fabric.

And that's it! Sewing a simple, elegant blouse isn’t really such a trial, not even with crêpe de chine, which has a reputation as a demanding material to work with.

Working with lightweight silk charmeuse and habotai is pretty similar, so you can try out your new skills on them.

Did you make a blouse using this tutorial?

What fabric did you use?

Share in the comments!