How To: Minimal Puff Sleeve Blouse with Keyhole Back & Shirring

There are two things I've historically despised in clothing: tie-dye, and shirring. Please find here what my nightmares are made of.

But just like everything else, shirring has gone around and come around for me. Especially in sleeves. 

Tutorials take a lot of time & effort to create, and I choose to make mine available for free. If you enjoy this guide, you can support me with a donation that feels right for you, here.

TOOLS:

Fabric (I used a printed crepe) 1.5 m x 1.5 m  |  Scissors  |  Pins  |  Small piece of matching round elastic + shirring elastic  |  Button  |  Thread & sewing machine (I also used my serger to finish seams  |  Not in image but about 25 cm of double-sided bias tape if you want to finish shoulder seams nicely

I. Here are the measurements of my cut front and back pieces (on top of each other) - I am EU36/US4 and wanted a semi-loose fit.

The only adjustment I made to the front piece was to cut the neckline a bit lower:

I also chopped the back piece in half along the middle, and finished the edges with my serger.

II. Then to create the keyhole, I sewed the two pieces back together, leaving about 15 cm from the top unsewn. Then I pressed the seam allowance as below, and sewed around the keyhole on the right side with a straight stitch. 

III. To finish the neckline nicely, I cut two pieces matching the curve, about 4 cm wide and pinned along the edges, right sides facing like so, and sewed along the curved neckline.

Then I flipped the lining pieces on the reverse and used my iron to fold them so I had this:

Before sewing, I created a little loop from my matching elastic, and hand-sewed it at the fold:

And then sandwiched the elastic in between, hand-sewing the lining piece to the top to avoid having a visible stitch on the right side.

Finally I hand-sewed my button on the other side of the keyhole.

IV. I repeated the same thing for the front piece neckline with a single lining piece.

V. The shoulder seams I finished with bias tape, like I did in my previous dress here.

VI. Then I cut my sleeves, by using the top's arm hole as guidance. Some measurements below:

I first finished the sleeve ends with a double fold:

VII. Next came the shirring. Here is a very clear video showing the process. My shirring elastic was a bit loose for my tastes, so after sewing in the stitches (which you can see from below I did in pairs, with about 1.5cm in between) I pulled on the elastics to gather the shirring even more. Until I had this:

After doing both sleeves, here's what they looked like.

VIII. Next I just attached the sleeves to the top, and completed the sleeve under seam and top side seams. I left small slits at the hem on both side seam.

After hemming the top it was done!

I still can't believe I have this amount of love for something shirred. How life can change.

xo,

Julia