Raida Blouse - The Fabrics I used + Fabrics I would buy!

We are in the thick of pattern testing the Raida pattern and one of my lovely testers recommended sharing which fabrics I used for my Raida Samples. I have made 8+ samples this past year while developing this pattern and knew this was the spot to share all the do’s and don’ts of what to sew with. In this post I will be sharing not only the fabrics I used, but also what I would recommend and buy if I was starting over.

Please keep in mind I am sharing all of my Raida Samples in this post, but the pattern will be sold as a Dress and Blouse pattern separately.

I hope you enjoy!

View A

Pattern Details: view A in both the Dress and Blouse version feature a circular yoke and buttons down the front. Both the dress and Blouse patterns will include two sleeve lengths.

Fabric Used: This fabric was thrifted at a local shop, so I am not 100% about the fiber content, but I can tell you it feels almost exactly like a rayon/viscose. It was made from a mid-weight fabric with a heavy drape.

I only used one fabric on this dress, but if you look at the hem and yoke of the dress you will see some dark solid blue peaking through. Since the wrong side looked just as nice as the right side I folded my hem backwards to get a fun effect on the hem and put the yoke on backwards as well. Its my favorite part of this dress!

Fabric Used: This fabric was also thrifted…are you starting to see a pattern here? This fabric is almost identical to the fabric in my Raida Dress view A photo, but it is much lighter in weight. I definitely prefer wearing this fabric as the viscose doesn’t make me sweat and is great in the summer.

I used a vintage trim on the collar and the yoke to help them stand out in the busy floral print, and I love how this blouse turned out!

Raida Blouse View A - Cropped Hem

Fabric used: This blouse is made from thrifted denim I estimate to be around 5oz/yd. I used two different tones of the denim originally because I didn’t have enough fabric to add the ruffle in the lighter denim, but I really love how the contrast highlights the colar, ruffle and binding hem. I used Gutermann topstitching thread in gold to really highlight the pin-tucks on the sleeves.

Fabric Used: This dress was made from quilting cotton sold previously at Joann. I really love this print because it reminds me of a Liberty print, but I was able to get it at a fraction of the cost at a yard sale. The buttons were also thrifted.

View B

Pattern Details: View B is probably my favorite view of this pattern. It has a circular yoke, collar stand and ruffle, but the button is in the back giving it a nice clean finish. It can also be made as a Dress, Blouse and has 2 sleeve lengths.

Fabric Details: This blouse was made out of Black Linen from fabric-store.com. It’s a beautiful Medium (5.3 oz/yd2) weight linen that I would definitely recommend. That being said…I did try to make a Raida Blouse view C with the gathered yoke with this fabric at first. It didn’t go well, so I scrapped the gathered yoke and made this lovely View B version.

I ran out of fabric for the the collar and ruffles so I used some old cotton voile from my stash. I love the contrast and wear this blouse frequently.

Fabric Details: In this photo I am using a nice cotton shirting fabric with a light weight crisp hand. I love my black linen blouse, but I think I prefer the crisp cotton I ended up using for the dress. I had fun with this almost metallic thread showing off the details in this pattern.

Fabric Details: This Raida dress was also made from thrifted quilting cotton. This cotton is a little stiff, but I think it shows the details of the pattern really well. This vintage fabric really inspired me and a-lot of my branding.

View C

Pattern Details: View C has a gathered circular yoke, ruffled collar, blouse and dress options and two sleeve length options. Phew!

Fabric Details: This blouse is made from a quilting cotton. I have found that I really like making View C from a nice crisp cotton as you can iron the gathers really nicely. Any lightweight fabric is suitable, but I really like the nice crisp gathers after they are pressed.

Fabric Details: This fabric is an old cotton bedsheet. Like I mentioned above I like a crisp cotton for the yoke gathers, so I have used this fabric because it creases really well and holds the yoke shape nicely. The Gathered tier on this one was created by using 1.5x the hem of the garment. I think I would have preferred it with 2x the width, but I didn’t have enough fabric.

Recommended Fabric

In the pattern Description provided in the instruction booklet I have given the following suggestions.

“The Raida pattern is designed for light to mid-weight woven fabrics. Choose a fabric (2 to 5 oz/yd) such as a linen, cotton lawn, cotton poplin, cotton sateen, lyocell, shirtings, viscose crepe, or viscose-linen-noil. Please note that heavier weighted fabrics will make view C more difficult to gather. This pattern is perfect for old bed sheets.”

With those recommendations and what I have learned from my samples, here are a few fabrics I would suggest buying for this pattern.

1 - Japanese Cotton Lawn | Black & Burgandy
2 - IL020 Handkerchief Basile Softened - 100% Linen - Light (3.7 oz/yd2)
3 - IL030 Gauze Bleached - 100% Linen - Very Light (2.8 oz/yd2)
4 - IL020 Handkerchief Abyss Softened - 100% Linen - Light (3.7 oz/yd2)
5 - Vintage Japanese Lawn
6 - Cupro Viscose
7 - Medium Weight European Laundered Linen this link contains an affiliate link that should give you 10% off of your iseefabric.com order.
8 - Yarn Dyed Cotton Shirting | Cortado
9 - Deadstock Rayon Challis | Spotted Navy