I brought this pattern off Etsy
from Midvale Cottage in
2011 and I never managed to try it since! 2016 is the year where I’m finishing
pending projects, and I’m starting with his one!
Before jumping into the
construction of the blouse, I decided to test pattern first, and good thing I
did! The envelope calls of fabrics with a good amount of body, such as shantung
and taffeta. Therefore, I chose to use an unbleached cotton canvas that renders
a similar architectural effect!
From the information on envelope,
the patterns seems to have the perfect measurements for me, so I decided to
test it out without modifying this size.
Naturally, the construction of the
garment is a bit more complex then what I’m used to. As with all sewing
patterns of a certain age, the instructions can be a little difficult to
decipher.
With lots of ceremony, the original
pattern was lightly ironed to flatten the half a century-old wrinkles. Then I
transferred the pattern to silk paper and cut the pattern out of cotton canvas.
Then the construction began. The
most challenging part was the collar, which is also the most distinctive part
of the design! The collar is made of two “points” and two “inverted points” and
is supported by a facing. For me, it’s still quite difficult to make crisp and
sharp points in the fabric and I’m not satisfied of the result on this blouse.
I tried top-stitching around the collard to stabilize. Naturally it didn’t help
at all. What was I imagining? I think I will need to invest in a point turner
and practice some more!
The second construction problem
arose from the junction between the collar and back piece. They come together
in an inverter corner, which is quite unstable on its own. With all the
clipping and sewing going on in the collar piece around the neck, it weakened
the canvas a great deal and the stitching between back and collar piece started
to unravel immediately after I took it off the sewing machine! In the future, I
will try to resolve this problem by backing the corners with organza.
Overall, I think the blouse looks
awesome. It has this distinctive “new look” with it’s high collar and double tucks accents pointing towards the waist.
Strangely, this pattern fits my dress form
beautifully but looks way too large on me! Even though we share the same bust
and waist measurements! I think it’s partly due to the way the fabric is
released by the darts at the waist line. They make the bust area look somewhat “baggy”.
For now, I don’t have the will to redesign and reshape the pattern to make it
more tailored. It will have to sit in the pattern cupboard until I find the
motivation!
