Metza Metz

That's my childhood Italian slang for so-so (which you say while rotating your hand back and forth), and my general opinion of the "blouse" pattern from Connie Crawford's Butterick 5053.

CC stresses that her patterns are designed, sized and graded so that you should pick your blouse/top size by your full bust measurement. My full bust is 47-48" (depending on the hour/day/week!) so I chose the 1X, which is one size larger than the pants pattern I made up yesterday. I made it up with no alterations whatsoever. Clearly, this bust circumference isn't working for me. My chest is being smushed and there are all kinds of unsewn dart folds radiating around the girls.





To more clearly illustrate that point, here's what happens when I lift my arms and don't immediately pull the top back down. It gets stuck on the "terrain." Nice, eh?



A good thing about this pattern, though, is that it does not have the linebacker shoulders you see when commercial patterns are graded up to larger sizes. My shoulders are on the narrow side. I always chop off at least 1/2" from other patterns (even after reducing for the linebacker factor). This one is fitting pretty well in the shoulders. And, as I guessed a few days ago when preflighting the pattern against one of my TNTs, it is definitely drafted for more square shoulders, as I have. I don't think I'd need to make any further "squaring" adjustment. I would still need to take in the shoulder width but that's my body, not the pattern in this case. If you do not have narrow shoulders, it should fit you here great.

Here's a shot of the side. The sleeve is a little too snug, and waaaay too long, but that's to cover up my unattractive arms, right? ;-) I've cut the sleeve on the hem line so this is the finished length. All of these problems are easy fixes. It is hanging pretty well on grain, though, so that's good. The armhole is a bit low, but not nearly as low as I see with Big 3/4 patterns. Again, another easy fix.



The back has problems too. It's too long between shoulder and waist, which is a problem I have on most other patterns as well. It's probably also too long in the front in the same area but it's harder to tell since it's too tight across the girls. It's not as snug as it looks here while I'm trying to take a back angle shot but since I chose a pattern that is one size larger than the pants I just made, I expected to have a bit more room at the hips. Wrong. It's at the verge of too tight. Why wouldn't the sizing be consistent across pieces in the same envelope? Speaking of envelopes and hips, this pattern in the smaller size range includes a side seam vent at the bottom with pattern pieces that jut out at the bottom, if you know what I mean. Not hard to make up myself but why doesn't the plus size pattern include this same detail as the smaller range? For heaven's sake, if anyone needs a vent at the hips, it's us with the bodacious booties.



Here I've pinned out a 1/2" tuck across the back. If I wasn't trying to juggle a camera and mirror, it would look a lot better and the neck wouldn't be gaping.



Now that I've covered the fit issues, I'll address the style problems. This is not sold as a tee shirt pattern. It's a "blouse" pattern for wovens. As such, it's way too plain and tent-y. It's almost a swing silhouette, which just billows out from a full bust. It would have even more of a tent factor if I went up another size, instead of doing an FBA, so it actually fit around my bust. The narrow scoop neck is frumpy and, frankly, any more narrow and I couldn't get it over my head. A more open neckline would be much more flattering on nearly any woman, plus or not. In a woven, this top needs sewn bust darts. All those wrinkles around the armhole are distracting and do not flatter full busts. The bottom hemline does have a slight curve, which actually is a flattering detail. Finally, one flattering thing. ;-)

Here's my TNT tee pattern on top of this blouse pattern. Yes, my pattern is for knits but it does not have negative ease. It's not too far off overall, but I don't need another basic top so I won't be fiddling with it. Because the shoulder area does seem to be a better fit than usual Big 3/4 patterns, if you don't already have a TNT, maybe it would be a good jumping off point for you?




And here endeth my experimentation with Connie Crawford patterns.