What We Sew in the Shadows: A Nadja-Inspired Ruffle Blouse Tutorial

Every October, I do a Halloween-themed costume project and turn it into a tutorial. You might remember the one I did on Cruella or Wednesday Addams from previous years.

This year, I went with What We Do In The Shadows, an absolutely hilarious vampire mockumentary series currently available on Disney+. To be honest, I was already going to do this last year, but ended up not having time. So here it is now!

If you’ve never heard of this series, it’s based on a 2014 movie of the same name directed by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi. It follows the adventures of vampires that share a mansion on Staten Island, New York. One of them is Nadja of Antipaxos, played by Natasia Demetriou. And Nadja’s costumes inspired this tutorial. Probably because she’s often wearing big sleeves! 😉

Here’s a video that will give you an idea of the show.

Costumes in the show are designed by Amanda Neale (seasons 1-2) and Laura Montgomery (seasons 3-6). The former also designed costumes for the original movie.

For this tutorial, I chose a black ruffle blouse that appears in the last episode of season 4. I made my own version using a different material (satin, taffetà & organza instead of faux leather). I also added extra ruffles and made the sleeves slightly larger. The blouse was for my friend Giorgia.

There are three rows of pleated ruffles on both sides of the button placket, a stand-up collar with two rows of ruffles at its upper edge, and a larger ruffle inserted into a princess seam of the bodice. The sleeve is a leg o’ mutton, and it comes with a cuff.

It was quite challenging to see the blouse details on the screen, given how dark it was, so some guesswork and improvising were involved. We decided to add a seam to the waist and a peplum with pleats in the back.

The Nadja Ruffle Blouse Pattern: The Bodice

For the pattern, you’ll need a basic bodice block and its sleeve block.

Let’s start by deciding on the length of the blouse. For this example, the front hem is 30cm below the waist, while the back is 10cm longer. The peplum starts at the waist. The seam has a V-shape in the front.

I added 3cm of flare to the peplum at the side seam at hip level, both front and back. There will be a box pleat at the c-back: add 7cm to form half of the pleat. There will also be a knife pleat 3,5cm to the left of the c-back (so the pleat allowances won’t overlap). Draw a line to add pleat allowance.

We will also get rid of the waist darts. Draw lines from the dart tips down. Then, draw a continuous, high-low hemline shape between the front and back pieces.

Before separating the peplum, add the button placket. As the final width will be 3cm, start by adding half of its width at the c-front. Then, the full width, 3cm. And finally, another 2,5cm that will be folded inside. The button placket will end 1,5cm to the right of the c-front line: draw a dashed line. We will soon separate the button placket piece, too.

Measure the neckline, front and back pieces separately, starting from the original c-front line.

Separate the peplum pieces and the button placket. Close the darts. For the front peplum, you can add some extra flare while doing so, as the piece won’t have pleats to create volume.

Add 7cm of pleat allowance for the knife pleat. Redraw the hemlines and adjust the waistlines.

Next, we’ll modify the rest of the bodice pattern. First, move the armhole 5cm inward at the shoulder seam. This is because of the sleeve, which will have a lot of volume at the shoulder. The new armhole lines start at the armhole notches. Make it a continuous line between the front and back pieces.

Then, the princess seam. Move the darts slightly at the shoulder if you don’t have at least 2cm between them and the new armhole.

The front seam will pass through the bust point and turn towards the c-front, absorbing both darts into the seam. Mark a notch at the bust point. Mark another notch a couple of centimeters from the c-front. This is where the ruffle will start.

The back seam should end 3,5cm from the c-back at the waist so it will match the knife pleat position of the peplum. Move the waist dart to accommodate this. Then draw the princess seam, absorbing both darts. The seam should also form a continuous line with the front pieces. Mark a notch somewhere in the middle. Copy the grainline from the c-back to the side panel piece.

Measure the front and back princess seam lengths for the ruffles (start at the notch). Measure also the c-front seam length. This is where the front ruffles will go. Then, you can separate the pieces. Close the front waist dart and adjust the lines.

Mark notches on the button placket pattern where the front bodice seams are.

Here are the pattern pieces. You can already mark the button placement along the c-front line of the button placket, if you want. I decided this only once I had sewn the blouse.

The Nadja Ruffle Blouse Pattern: The Leg o’ Mutton Sleeve

Trace your basic sleeve block. See if you need to shorten it slightly at the hem, since there will be a 4cm-high cuff. You might also want to adjust the hemline width. It will need to match the cuff circumference.

Then, cut along the elbow line. We’ll add volume to the upper section.

Draw lines from all three notches down, and other two lines in between, so you’ll end up with five lines. Slash and spread, adding volume as shown below. Feel free to add less volume if you want to have smaller sleeves.

Then, draw a new sleeve cap, raising it by 13cm.

Unite the upper and lower sections of the sleeve back together and draw the cuff pattern. It’s a rectangle. The height is twice the final cuff height (+2x seam allowance), and the length is the same as your sleeve’s hemline width (+2x seam allowance).

Mark notches for the slit, for example, 12cm above the hemline.

The Nadja Ruffle Blouse Pattern: The Stand-up Collar

For the collar, you’ll need the neckline measurements plus half of the button placket width, which is 1,5cm. This is how much it will extend past the c-front.

1. Draw a straight line A-B. The length equates to the front and back neckline measurements + 0,5cm.
2. Measure the back neckline + 0,2cm, as in the picture, and mark a notch C. On the other side of the notch, you should have the front neckline measurement + 0,3cm.
   Also, add the measurement of your button placket overlap (here 1,5cm), extending to the left, D.
3. Square up 3cm from A and C. This is the height of the collar.
4. Square up 1,5cm + the collar height from D and mark a notch E at 1,5cm and F on top, as shown here. Square 1,5cm to the right from F, and mark G.
5. Draw a line from E to G, and then measure the collar height from E along this line.
   Complete the collar shape as shown in the picture. Check the collar length against the bodice neckline with the ”walking” method. Correct the shoulder notch placement and collar length at the c-back if needed.
6. Mark where you want the two rows of ruffles to start and measure their lengths.

The Nadja Ruffle Blouse Pattern: The Pleated Ruffles

Next, we’ll use all the previous measurements to calculate the pleated ruffle pieces. I added an extra ruffle for the princess seam. It’s narrower than the first one. I called these the sleeve ruffles by the way.

As ruffles are just rectangles, you don’t need to draft patterns. Just note down the measurements. Start by deciding the widths for each ruffle. You can see my ruffle measurements below. Remember to add seam and hem allowances to the measurements. I only added 1cm for the hem allowance as I used organza and taffetà.

As for the length, if you want to be precise, just calculate twice the final ruffle length. The pleats won’t go back-to-back in this case. I made a little drawing at the bottom of the graph below. If you want back-to-back pleats, calculate 3x the final length. Add seam and hem allowance.

At this point, I must admit that I only made the length calculations to check if the fabric width would be enough to cut the entire ruffle, but I left them longer to allow myself to be less precise with the folds.

The Toile

Now you have all the pattern pieces and you can make a toile to check the fit and style.

I started by making a partial sleeve toile to see how large it was. Once I was happy with that, I made the whole blouse, but only included ruffles on one side to save time. At this point, I wasn’t going to double the sleeve ruffles, yet.

We did the fitting with my friend, and I ended up only having to adjust the collar slightly and fine-tune the ruffle widths. So yay.

The Ruffle Blouse: Sewing

Then it was time to go shopping for fabric. We chose duchesse satin and decided to make the ruffles in either organza or taffeta, which soon evolved into using both.

My working order was to prepare the pleated ruffles first and then work one section at a time: the bodice, the peplum, the button placket, the collar, and the sleeves.

I made a quick video summarizing the entire sewing process.

The Pleated Ruffles

For the ruffles, I ripped slices of my fabric using the correct width measurements from my calculations. Then I hemmed the entire length and cut little notches for the pleats to the remaining raw edge. These were every 2cm for the sleeve ruffles and every 1,5cm for the rest.

Next, I folded and pinned the knife pleats, referring to the notches. Organza was similar to paper, making it easy to fold. I folded until I had the correct length of pleated ruffle. Then, I stitched the folds down near the edge. The sleeve ruffles have a seam at the shoulder, and on both sides, the pleats point towards the hem.

The outermost c-front ruffles need a hem at both long edges because they’re not inserted into a seam. Only the narrowest of them has a hem at one short edge.

The collar ruffles feature a box pleat at the c-back point, allowing the knife pleats to change direction at the c-back.

Sewing the Bodice

Here are the bodice and sleeve pieces cut.

I started by closing the shoulder seams. To avoid bulk, I pressed the seams open.

Then, I stitched the two sleeve ruffles in place and closed the princess seams. At the back, I left enough room for the waist seam allowance, plus a bit of extra.

Next, I attached the three rows of ruffles on both sides of the c-front. The outermost is pinned about 3cm away from the edge. The other two are aligned with the raw edge where the button placket will be sewn.

The two wider ruffles’ short lower edges will be sewn into the seams, too.

Now that the ruffles are attached, we can add the peplum. Close the pleats first, and stitch them down at the waist. Then, sew the side seams.

Attach the peplum to the bodice waist. Don’t catch the ruffles in the seam, though! Here’s what you should have by now:

Then, we’ll prepare and attach the button placket. My fabric was rather heavyweight, so I didn’t interface it.

I found it easier to press the folds before attaching the button plackets to the bodice. First, sew the correct edge to the bodice, right sides together. Then, pin the remaining edge of the already-folded placket in place and sew near the edge. I closed the short edge at the hem before this. You can also hem the peplum at this point.

Here’s the situation now:

The Collar

Interface one of the collar pieces. The one that will remain on top. Pin and sew the ruffles to its upper edge, right sides together, matching the box pleats to the c-back notch. All the raw edges should be aligned.

Adjust the ruffle lengths at the front while pinning.

Then, take the other collar piece and pin & sew the upper edges right sides together. The ruffles will remain in between.

Trim the seam allowance, turn the right sides out, and press the collar flat. You might also need to flatten the upper edge by sewing a row of stitches, as there’s a bit of bulk (see the picture above).

Then, attach the collar to the blouse neckline, starting with the outer edge. Pin the right sides together, matching the shoulder notches with the shoulder seams and the c-back notches.

After sewing, trim half of the seam allowance and press it towards the collar. Press the seam allowance of the remaining edge down. Pin it in place so that you can sew with the right side on top. Sew.

In the picture above, you can see the extra interfacing (the white thing) I had to add to sustain the collar, as it was collapsing under the weight of the ruffles.

The Sleeve

Now we can prepare the sleeves.

Start by sewing two rows of gathering stitches between the armhole notches. Then, close the underarm seam above the slit notches, and press the seam open. Make two folds and stitch to create the slit.

Depending on your fabric, interface at least half of the sleeve cuff piece. Sew one long edge to the sleeve’s hem, leaving a seam allowance at both short edges.

Then, close the short edges, folding the seam allowance of the remaining long edge up.

Trim the corners and turn the right sides out. Press. Pin the remaining edge to the sleeve hem and stitch. While you’re at it, stitch around the entire cuff to flatten the edges.

As the sleeve cap has a lot of volume, you can already gather part of it. Mark the central notch with a pin before doing so.

Then, turn the bodice wrong side out and place the correct sleeve into the armhole, right sides together. Match the armhole notches and the sleeve’s central notch with the bodice shoulder seam. Gather until the sleeve is the same size as the armhole. Distribute the gathers and add more pins. Match the sleeve’s underarm seam with the bodice side seam. Sew.

The duchesse was rigid enough that I didn’t need to add a sleeve head to sustain the shape, which was great!

The Buttons

The last thing was to sew the buttonholes and attach buttons. We chose covered buttons.

I marked the buttonholes using my usual method, which involves a template and basting thread. They go on the right side.

I only added one button to the top edge of the sleeve cuffs because we wanted them to remain partially open.

My template also includes the button placement, so I marked those on the left side and attached the buttons. I would’ve placed the buttons closer together (=more buttons), but it was a pain to cover them because they were so small! 😀

And that’s it. The blouse is ready.

The Pictures

Let’s see the pictures. As usual, here is the blouse on the mannequin first:

A few details. Here, you can also see the sleeve cuff.

And then a few pictures I took with Giorgia wearing her new blouse. We found this bar in Milan that has a similar vibe to What We Do In The Shadows. Perfect location! What do you think?

And of course there also needed to be a painting-style picture!