Making Fibr & Cloth’s ZW Iris blouse
![](https://lizhaywood.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/IMG_0495-resized.jpg)
It’s rare that I sew something for myself that’s not part of work, but I was a bit taken with Fibr & Cloth Studio’s Iris blouse. I liked the soft tie neck and the long sleeves.
![Iris blouse in gingham with elastic cuffs.](https://lizhaywood.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Iris-blouse-in-gingham.jpg)
Iris is essentially a classic square-cut shirt, with a choice of cuff finishes. There are also instructions for turning the blouse into a dress.
![Iris blouse in white with cuffs.](https://lizhaywood.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Iris-blouse-cuffs.jpg)
The pattern pieces are rectangles with a template for the neckline.
![Zero waste Iris blouse pattern sketch back and front](https://lizhaywood.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Iris-blouse-sketch.jpg)
I recommend (for any pattern you make) to take a few moments to check the body width, length, bicep, sleeve length and anything else.
I made the body length a bit longer.
It was fairly quick to make. I cut it out one evening while I was keeping an eye on dinner, and easily got it sewn the next day.
The pattern is designed for light to medium weight fabrics, and I think soft fabrics would work best.
![Zero waste Iris blouse scraps](https://lizhaywood.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Iris-blouse-IMG_0364.jpg)
It turned out that my fabric frayed A LOT. I consider myself fairly gentle at handling fabric, but halfway through I had to overlock around all the pieces lest they disappear into a mass of threads. Then I sewed on with confidence!
I made a somewhat major tweak with this blouse, and that was to make the tie narrower. I cut it as per the pattern, then cut it in half longways and made a centre back seam. So it’s half the width and double the length. I did this partly to give a bigger bow, and partly because I wanted a winter blouse with a more closed-in neckline.
The original tie is quite wide, and you can see from the designer’s photos that the neckline is wide too so that the tie fits inside. So now that I had a narrower tie, I didn’t need a wider neckline.
![](https://lizhaywood.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Iris-blouse-IMG_0356.jpg)
![](https://lizhaywood.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Iris-blouse-IMG_0362.jpg)
![Iris blouse - interior view of pleat](https://lizhaywood.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Iris-blouse-IMG_0434.jpg)
![Iris blouse - back view of pleat](https://lizhaywood.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Iris-blouse-IMG_0479.jpg)
Given the fabric’s fraying situation, I was nervous about the top neck/tie junction, so I structurally re-engineered it with a strip of lightweight fusing topped with a piece of bias binding.
![Up-close view of the placket top/tie junction, with bias binding to reinforce the neck edge.](https://lizhaywood.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Iris-blouse-IMG_0442.jpg)
The cuffs are button-and-loop fastened. The vent is simply an opening in the sleeve seam, which I like very much because my wrist isn’t sitting on a row of buttons when I write.
![Cuff, showing the buttons and loops](https://lizhaywood.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Iris-blouse-IMG_0458.jpg)
![Cuff detail](https://lizhaywood.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Iris-blouse-IMG_0464.jpg)
![Iris blouse worn by Liz](https://lizhaywood.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Iris-blouse-IMG_0481.jpg)
![Iris blouse: close-up of the bow.](https://lizhaywood.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Iris-blouse-IMG_0523.jpg)
I like this blouse very much! I’m wearing it today for Me-Made-May with a vest on top.
![Iris blouse worn for Me Made May with a rust coloured vest over the top.](https://lizhaywood.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Iris-blouse-IMG_0545.jpg)
Cheers!
I liked the idea of using a small pleat in the back to make the neckline smaller. I will be using it in the future!
Cheers Michelle 🙂 It makes the back look interesting too.
Your blouse is lovely. I can see using a Mandarin collar instead of a bow (personal preference) but don’t know how that would affect the ZW aspect.
Cheers, Carol 🙂 Changing the collar would affect the zw but it would still be very economical on fabric and create minimal waste. You could transpose any neckline/collar onto it.
I really like this blouse. It’s quite pretty! Looks like a fun and quick project.
Thanks Michelle! I think I might have found my new favourite blouse pattern.
I LOVE this blouse Liz, such a pleasure and an honor to have you make one of my designs! Will definitely be trying this modification myself for the neckline. 🙂 Thanks so much babe!
It was a pleasure to make, Alexis!
Very clever! Thank you for showing how to did your changes.
Cheers, Lorraine. Alexis has since made an update to this pattern with similar changes and a dress version which looks excellent.