Daisy Chain Polly Blouse

The Pattern

This super cute pattern has been on my radar ever since the creators first began sharing development pics!

It's called the Polly by Daisy Chain Patterns, an indie pattern company run by friends Natalie Ebaugh and Liz Ford.

It's a blouse and dress pattern perfectly described as "that charming children’s dress you wish came in your size."

It's a real choose your own adventure pattern with a multitude of variations including 4 different necklines, 3 sleeve options, ruffles, button plackets... it's just brilliant.

I chose the square neckline with narrow ruffle and longer sleeves.

Get the pattern here: https://daisychainpatterns.com/collections/patterns/products/polly-blouse-dress

Fit & Adjustments

The instructions give you the dimensions for the skirt pieces - I chose to mark this onto tracing paper to make my own pattern piece. I marked out the smallest size but it still seemed very big, so I reduced the width further slightly.

For the bodice and sleeve pieces I cut out my size based on bust measurement as that is the most fitted part.

The sleeves are amazing, absolutely enormous! If (lets be honest, when) I make another I will reduce the volume of the sleeves slightly.

I initially made the sleeves with the ruffle as per the pattern, but when I tried it on I felt like they were wearing me. I took a photo of them to share, as they were beautiful.

I decided to cut the ruffle away and turn the hem under twice to make a simple elastic casing instead.

This does reduce the impact of the sleeves, but makes the blouse more wearable for me.

Fabric

I bought this amazing retro floral cotton from Blackbird fabrics last year, and had enough left over from another dress I made to make this.

It's recently back in stock! https://www.blackbirdfabrics.com/en-gb/products/mod-floral-cotton-lawn-periwinkle-red-green?variant=39335666614318

It's such a fun fabric, I can see why it's so popular.

I think a cotton works really well for this pattern as it gives structure to those sleeves and makes making the ruffles much easier than a drapey fabric would.

I'm planning to make it again and will probably try the wider neckline flouncy ruffle, and add some ricrac to keep up the cute factor.

I love the dress version of this too, but tent style and swing dresses just don't suit me. Perhaps with a matching belt I could make it work? Something to mull over!

Do you fancy having a go at this pattern?