Embroidered Simplicity 3684

I finally did it -- made my very own Vyshyvanka! A vyshyvanka is a Ukrainian embroidered blouse, but mine is not traditional. I found this lovely soft yellow cotton at the thrift store recently, and decided to use it to make Simplicity 3684. I chose View C as the one with the most "vyshyvanka" feel to the sleeve and I also liked the simple collar band.

I did all my regular adjustments to this blouse pattern - shortened above the waist by 1/2", shortened the sleeve (in this case I shortened both top and bottom parts of the sleeve by 1" each) and graded from 14 at neck to 16 at bust and 18 at hip. This usually does the trick for me. 

It went together quite smoothly. The sleeve/cuff used a continuous lap, which I am used to from Burda patterns, but I do have to stop and think hard about it every single time! I found that the most difficult part of the whole thing, the construction was pretty straightforward otherwise. And as it turns out, I don't have to unbutton the cuffs to slip this on, so it was unnecessary anyhow! There were also two fisheye darts on the back, but when I tried it on I didn't like the way the blouse sat with those darts, so unpicked them and pressed them out again. This fabric is pretty forgiving.

As for the embroidery: 

I tested out various stitches and thread weights on my scraps, to see what I liked best. This cotton is lightweight and translucent so I was concerned about shadowing from the threads on the back. I found a simple motif that didn't require heavy stitching, again because this fabric doesn't have the weight to support lots of stitching. 

I ended up using the rhomb pattern, which can symbolize nature's rebirth, abundance, fertility, etc. From what I could find, this is often used in men's traditional designs, but I thought it would work nicely in my modern, non-traditional project. I used single, small motifs on the cuffs, button placket and collar, but created larger double rhombs for the sleeve decoration. All of these except for the sleeve are interfaced, so the stitching is supported well. I will keep my eye on the sleeve and see how it holds up. 

I chose three threads from my stash - all DMC. White, light blue (827) and a darker blue (996). I used three strands of each and the motifs were all done with buttonhole stitch and a few straight stitches, while the white was all straight stitch. I considered french knots but when I was testing I realized they would be too fragile for regular wearing. Using buttonhole stitch means there isn't much thread on the back, either, which is perfect. The stitching, after the testing and tracing, took me about 4-5 hours to complete. Not too bad, but these are simple motifs so it wasn't as lengthy. I don't know how to cross-stitch so went very basic here, also I know I am a slow stitcher so didn't want something really complicated for a first try. 

Buttons were a lucky match. I searched through a big box of shirt buttons that my sister gave me a few years ago, and found the perfect size and muted colour for this project. I wanted buttons that would blend in and not distract from the stitching. I think these worked really well. 

Well, after much dithering, I finally went ahead with a first simple Vyshyvanka project. I have a handful of other blouse patterns to try out and see if I like them for this purpose, but I had to start somewhere! This Simplicity pattern, which I put on my 2025 MakeNine list, was the one to begin with. Now that's 2 Make Nine projects completed for the year :)