Sewing: Butterick 5997 Pattern Hack

So I have exciting news: this pattern hack was featured in a bookazine! Take a look:

If you want to buy it, it’s Sew Style: Stitch Your Size by Sew Magazine and is available in W H Smith now or in supermarkets next week, or you can buy it here online. Eek, exciting!

I thought I’d share a few more photos of the hack though and talk a bit more about it here too, so here we go!

I’ve been out of the habit of writing sewing posts recently on the blog for a couple of reasons. Firstly, because of time. I’ve talked about how little of it I have with all the things that I want to do, so sewing has taken a little bit of a back seat recently. I’d also taken on a few projects that didn’t fit the blog – one was an Anna dress for my friend Charley which took quite a long time as I wanted it to be perfect then I wanted it to be a surprise, and it still needs shortening before she can wear it yet, so that didn’t make the blog. Then I worked on a several versions of a pattern that’s yet to be released so I can’t publish those yet. And then I made this top I’m showing off today, which was a secret project I couldn’t share yet, and I’ve also made something else that’s another secret project. So with the little time I’ve had for sewing, I’ve made things that can’t even be shown! Then on top of that, I’ve recently had an RSI in my wrist, so I’ve resting that, and sadly that meant no sewing.

But anyway! I was given Butterick 5997 by Sew Magazine along with this beautiful retro green floral fabric in order to hack up version C of the pattern and to create something of my own. It didn’t actually take me long to decide what I was going to do with in terms of hacking. My go-to pattern hack is to change the sleeve length as I generally prefer longer sleeves (I’m always cold!) and I wanted something quite retro or vintage inspired to match the style of the fabric. So the decision I made was to add a bit of flare to the sleeves by extending them outwards in a kimono style and to add a very 30s/40s pussybow to the collar.

The first thing I did though, before anything else? I made up a toile of the pattern based on the hacks I had planned for it, and I’m so glad I did! I’d definitely recommend it before you get started on hacking anything. I used a similar weight fabric to get the best lookalike blouse I could. I ended up with sleeves that were a little on the large side and a pussybow that wouldn’t tie because it was too short! I ended up adding several more inches to my pussybow pieces, which were basically just extended collar pieces to get the longer, floppier bow, although it could even still be longer!

I’d never sewn pin tucks like the ones on the front of the blouse before, so I was a bit nervous about them. To be completely honest, my lines still aren’t completely straight and I haven’t pressed them that well at all, but they’re not all that bad!

And I’ve shown off the blouse with two different pairs of trousers: blue jeans and white jeans, as Sew Magazine wanted a plainer background and outfit to really make the blouse stand out by itself – it works with both though, so it’s already showing off its versatility!

So what do you think of my pattern hack and feature in a magazine?! I was super excited to be featured for my sewing! I’ve been a couple of magazines before for fashion related things, but never for sewing, eek! Keep your eyes peeled for more sewing hacks in future 😀