2+2 on an overcast day.

I tried another Oliver+S pattern this week. This time, I made the 2+2 Blouse in a size 2T. I opted for the short sleeve version which is view B.

Why view B, you ask? The following tip may be the most worthwhile thing you read before you cut any fabric for any project. Though I'm probably overstating it's importance, It's a technique that works really well for me.

Long before I start cutting any fabric for a project, I make an inspiration gallery of my favourites on flickr. Favourite jump rope dresses, favourite cameras, favourite 2+2 blouses. You get the idea. If I see something that I like and inspiring, it immediately gets tagged in to one of my personal galleries.

I really like the idea of using flickr as a reference catalogue but I find the actual favourites system on flickr a bit unwieldy and difficult to manage. I've started to sort my favourite things into galleries which are bite-size consumable bits easy to digest. With all of my favourite 2+2 blouses together, I could quickly see that I really liked the short sleeve version best. I didn't know that ahead of time. I wouldn't have guesses that ahead of time, but by having a small collection in one easy place, the sign was hard to miss.

Each time I make one of these galleries, I look for similiarities in my favourites. I look at fabric constrast, the scale of the prints, the colour palette and tone variation. Then when picking out fabrics for my own project, I peek back at the galleries just before I start. Sure, I know what I like and could just dive into my stash, but the galleries really help me understand why I like certain things and how they look in context. They help ensure that I make something I like, but help me avoid the doldrum of making an exact copy of someone else's work.

Oh! And another great thing is that I get to make someone else very happy because something they've made and photographed has been handpicked and tagged for a gallery Who doesn't like that?! Go ahead and try it. I bet once you start making little galleries, you'll learn a little bit more about your tastes with a few surprises along the way.

My 2+2 blouse doesn't have it's buttons yet. Once it does and I make a matching skirt and take it to the august market to sell under the boutique sewists license. Until then, you can pick up a pattern to make your own. It comes with a long and short sleeve blouse and a pleated skirt in sizes 6m-3T and 4-8.