The idea behind the project was to take a traditional tailored blouse with cultural and sentimental value and create a modern + wearable light layering piece. The fit needed more ease to make it suitable for my active lifestyle as a mum with young kids, and I wanted it to be an every day garment not restricted to just evenings or special occasions.

I based this pattern on the many Malaysian Kebaya blouses I have inherited from the women in my family, using one in particular I bought on a trip to Singapore to draft the base pattern. I made many fit modifications including: grading up 2 sizes, eliminating the back fisheye darts for a boxier fit, cropping and widening the sleeves, cropping the length, creating a tie front closure and making a broad back adjustment. For toile versions I also drafted a facing and experimented with various hemming finishes.

For this final version I left off the facing and just did a narrow double fold hem. It has French seams throughout. The fabric is a crinkle crepe from Tessuti Fabrics.