Daisy Braid, or better know as DIY Daisy, is a young sewer who has a mission to create her dream wardrobe herself. She makes, she creates, she’ll give anything a go with a sewing machine.

Daisy has been sewing since she was a teenager thanks to both of her grandmothers introducing her to the craft. “I particularly enjoy the technical or mathematical aspect of self-drafting patterns and of course the feeling of being able to say ‘I made it!’,” says Daisy.

She joins the Nerida Hansen Fabrics team as a guest blogger and her first submission is a hack of our Puff Sleeve Blouse sewing pattern. Read on for Daisy’s tips on giving this top your very own twist.

Pattern
The Puff Sleeve Blouse was my pick to show off this beautiful print by Greta Laundy. I am usually an Australian size 12 but I cut a size 10 for this project and I am really happy with the final fit.

Fabric
For this hack, I used about 1.25m of Nerida Hansen Organic Cotton Sateen in a stunning print called Mountain by Greta Laundy. I made sure to change to a fresh sharp needle before starting this project and used a cream coloured thread to match. 

Hack
I love looking at a pattern and thinking about all the ways I could hack it and when I saw this pattern the first thing that came to mind was to make it a cute crop. I also wanted to make the sleeves a little bit puffier so to start, I did a very simple SINGLE slash. Slash and spread on my sleeve pattern piece to utilise as much of this beautiful fabric as possible. I’m a sucker for big puffy sleeves so I had to take it as far as I could go… or as far as my fabric allowance would let me!

My sleeves ended up being 70cm wide and I finished the hems with a 1cm self-casing and elastic rather than the binding. I also shortened my blouse by about 13cm, which left the hem sitting on my belly button. Then, I created a double folded self-casing to fit 2.5cm wide elastic which is the size I usually would use for elastic waistbands.

Shop Daisy's choice of fabric and Puff Sleeve Top Sewing Pattern at www.neridahansen.com.au 
Explore DIY Daisy's website here.