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Tackling sewing tops was at, well, the top of my summer making list. As an intermediate sewist, it was starting to feel like time for a challenge, and techniques found in a lot of women’s shirt patterns seemed like right thing to try next. Specifically, I’d only ever done buttons on my , and for some reason French seams hadn’t yet crossed my sewing table… ever. Enter the from Tilly and the Buttons, sewn in fabric , and finished with the most adorable vintage buttons.
Fabric Selection
Being a smart sewist, I made sure to look through the Mathilde pattern hashtags and posts on the Tilly and the Buttons Blog for inspiration before making my official fabric selection for this top. A lot of folks went for an allover polka dot or solid for their Mathildes, but I was kind of wanting a striped shirt in my wardrobe, and I was hoping to find something to help me practice a bit of pattern matching as well.
In my fabric hunt, I fell in love with from Art Gallery Fabrics’ collection right when I saw it. If you know me or my style at all, you’ll not be surprised. The primary colors, interestingly-combined geometric shapes, and the overall barcode-ish vibe* were 100% calling my name.
*I am a former Librarian. 😉
P.S. In my search, I think I only found one other person who attempted stripes (probably because of the tucks across the front of this blouse). But I said screw it, I wanted an excuse to play with this fabric, and I figured I’d learn the hard way why people avoided stripes. As predicted, pattern matching wasn’t possible in most of the blouse, but again, I didn’t mind.
Thoughts & Feelings about the Mathilde Blouse pattern
I got a physical copy of the Mathilde pattern while vacationing in Denver because when in Denver, one is morally obligated to visit . And when you’ve been curious to try a pattern from a particular company and it’s right there on clearance, you really have no choice but to go with it.
I don’t believe the pattern is available in print any longer, but you can still get the from the Tilly website. An interesting thing about this pattern was that the instructions read more like a tutorial than an old-school sewing pattern. That, plus the instructive tutorials on the Tilly blog, make this an advanced beginner-friendly sew.
What I’d change
Once or twice I felt myself wishing the instructions were a little more traditional, but that’s more personal preference than anything.
As usual for my body type, the finished pattern is just a skosh too big everywhere other than my boobs and hips when I work from just a bust measurement. Lesson: It’s very clearly time for me to learn how to do a full bust adjustment from a smaller size to achieve a good fit in both the bust and torso.
Design-wise, I have two critiques for Mathilde. She’s just a little too short – how the heck will I ever wear this tucked into something? For my personal style, that’s something I need to remember and/or adjust for. Added to that, the sleeves are pretty voluminous, which rules for photo shoots, but it’s a lot of fabric near my elbows. (In literally every designer’s defense forever, though, I rarely wear jewelry or other getting-in-the-way things because I’m just that kind of gal.)
In the end
Hair-splitting aside, I really enjoyed sewing my Mathilde! It was a fun challenge to find a couple logical places to pattern match. French seams? Turns out they’re not so bad! And even though I’ll likely take in this top at the back for fit, this was my biggest and best button installation to date. My Mathilde makes a great canvas for some truly cute red flower buttons (found in this Esty shop), and it shows off some of this lovely fabric too. Looking forward to tromping around Chicago in this all fall!
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