I sew the Nina blouse from Nine Patterns de couture

Do you also have patterns waiting for their time? For me, that was the case with the Nina blouse!

I bought this pattern two years ago. I hadn’t sewn it yet due to lack of time... then I pulled out my famous wish list 😂 You know, the one where you write down everything you’re going to sew... someday... well, I’m catching up!

Besides, it must be said that Milcah, the creator of Nina Pattern, offers us stunning models. Of course, after sewing Nina, I wanted to offer them to you in store and on the webshop.

Let’s go, I’ll tell you about my encounter with Nina and also with the creator!

The model

NINA is a small blouse perfect for spring/summer. It’s a very feminine, delicate model with a romantic touch…

The special feature of this blouse is its small puffed tied and lined sleeves. This allows you to play between the right and wrong sides with 2 different patterned fabrics to create color effects.

For the front closure, you can choose between 2 types of fastenings: button loops or buttonholes.

Practical information for sewing Nina

Nina was created by Milcah, who trained as a pattern maker in Toulouse, the pink city.

It is well constructed and the assembly guide is really easy to follow.

Nina is aimed at sewists from the confident beginner level. More experienced ones will also enjoy creating its small tied and lined sleeves or the button loop closure. The construction of this garment is very well thought out; I’ll share a bit about it in the sewing experience 😊.

Nina is available from size 34 to size 50, which is really great!

Seam allowances are included.

You can find it as printed patterns and PDFs on our website.

Nina is designed for woven fabrics like cotton poplin, cotton lawn, viscose poplin, linen, linen/viscose, broderie anglaise, tencel, cotton voile...

In the seamstress’s basket

To sew Nina you will need:
- 1.7m of fabric
- 70cm of fusible interfacing suitable for your fabric
- a spool of matching thread
- for the strap version: 70cm of buttonhole tape and 28 buttons (if you don’t space them out).
- for the classic buttonhole version: 7 buttons

My supplies

To sew my first version, I chose to make the buttoned version. I selected a Japanese floral poplin, a scrap of pink cotton poplin matching the flowers on the poplin (to line the sleeves), and buttons from my personal stock.

For the second version, I wanted to make the version with straps. A 3m coupon in linen/viscose with gold foil had been catching my eye for a while. I thought the cream and gold colors would go very well with the rest of my wardrobe.

So I took one of these coupons, some cream buttonhole elastic, and some small buttons.

For this version, I decided to line the sleeves with the same fabric.

Technical points

Nina is rated easy level, but it includes some very interesting technical points!

To sew Nina, you will need to do:
- bust darts
- lining the sleeves
- sewing a facing
- making a tab (for the clip version)
- making buttonholes (for the buttoned version)
- sewing buttons
- making a hem

My sewing experience

As you know, I always test pattern brands before offering them in the shop. So I took the time to properly study the patterns and decided to sew the Nina blouse. I must say I really enjoyed sewing both versions.

The designer thought the assembly of the sleeves and button closures through very well. I find it especially clever to offer a small tab in the clip version that hides the undersides in case there’s a gap that opens. The clips fall nicely... In short, a very beautiful modeling work!

I used braid for the clips and it’s much easier to use than rat tail! So I recommend using it for the versions with clips to save a lot of time!

I sewed both versions in size 34 and took 5cm off the length of the garment; Nina is designed for a height of 1.7m and I am 1.53m 😅.

For my first version: I chose to line the sleeves with a different fabric, which allows for two-tone ties. I think it’s quite nice.

For my second version: I chose to line the sleeves with the same fabric especially since I had a 3m coupon. I took buttonhole elastic and since I didn’t want to put as many buttons (like on wedding dress backs, I’m sure you know what I mean), I cut the clips to leave only the ones I needed. I chose to group the buttons in pairs for more originality.