Bonjour Mathilde!

Voila, my very first stripy Mathilde blouse! Very French, non? And perfect for the beach! After Tilly released her very first printed pattern – the Coco dress – I was absolutely hooked by her beautiful designs. The patterns are so lovely to hold, made of lovely thick paper and come with a gorgeous colour ‘how-to’ booklet which is super helpful for sewing your garments together. I can’t stress enough just how great these patterns are – for beginners as well as seasoned sewists.

Anyhow, I digress…. I was on holiday in Paris the other week and picked up a few bits and pieces from the myriad of fabric shops by the Sacre Coeur, including this very lightweight nautical-style cotton. Using this fabric to make it seemed like a no-brainer. As soon as I’d brought the fabric back to our Parisian apartment I just KNEW this was meant to be.

The Mathilde pattern is really good fun to make and you learn a lot of dressmaking techniques as you complete each stage (including how to do French seams!). I made one of the smallest sizes because I’d heard rumours about it being a bit ‘roomy’ and I’m currently not confident enough to start editing pattern sizes according to my personal measurements! If anyone knows of an easy way to learn pattern-fitting, please do let me know.

So here’s my finished Mathilde – I’m not sure I’ve seen a striped Mathilde before so perhaps this is a first! What do you reckon? I plan to use it as a ‘beach cover-up’ blouse because of the lightweight, semi-see-through fabric and the nautical-knot style silver buttons. It’s practically screaming out for a summer holiday in Greece/Italy/the South of France so that I can keep my very fair skin covered whilst also keeping cool. Perhaps not appropriate for my honeymoon in Iceland!