Blouse Envy

In that frustrating way the internet has, I ran across a teeny tiny thumbnail photo of a freakishly adorable top.  Appeared to be red polkadots, neck tie or ruffly jabot, short sleeves with armband.  It appeared to be a screenshot from a tv show or movie.


Did you know you know you can copy the URL of a photo and paste it in the google search box, and it will search the internets for THAT image? 

You can.

Behold the magnificence of red (not polkadot) necktie/ruffly jabot short sleeve blouse:

 

Swoon.  It has a bit of a 40s vibe, don't you think?

 

And it's not polkadots, oh no.  It's LIPS.  

 

Now I must have a red LIP printed ruffly jabot short sleeve blouse. Pattern suggestions?  Seems like there's a Burda Style or HP out there similar.

(By the way, my uber detective googling discovered that the tv show was "Friends with Benefits", a very, VERY short lived series that ran a couple of years ago?  I have never heard of it, and I'm a tv-aholoic.) Alas, I'm not interested enough to finagle the (rather tasteless) screencaps for the other 9 or 10 episodes to look for more gems like this blouse.  Based on this episode, the title actually does indicate the premise of the series.

I had to wade through a ton of screencaps to bring you these pretties (oh, the depths I go for you, dear readers), and on my way I also found a series of scary photos of the above actress in a different scene:

Holy Botox, Batman. 

WHY would such a lovely woman, who is clearly still quite young (early 30s?) do this?

Oh Hollywood, yet again you disappointment with your shallowness. 

If you haven't made a New Year's Resolution yet, might I suggest embracing your wrinkles?  Hopefully you got them from things like SHOWING EMOTION and SMILING and LAUGHING and LIVING LIFE. So they're nothing to be ashamed of. 

Also, more cute feminine blouses.  Yup.

Vtg Mail Order 1839: Grey Print Top

This weekend I cut out two little tops from this vintage pattern I mentioned in my last post, a 1940s mail order pattern (unknown company) #1839:

I've made the cap sleeve version twice before, and love it (I still wear this one all the time!)  I thought it was the perfect pattern to knock off this sweet grey and white that Amy Adams wore in the Muppets:

I knew as soon as I saw it that I had the PERFECT grey and white print cotton in my stash.  REALLY similar, huh??

My vintage pattern probably fits so well because of the shoulder gathering (no FBA needed). 

And the back bodice/shoulder piece is extended to the front about 2 inches, so the gathering doesn't start at the shoulder seam, but just below in the front.  It makes everything super easy since there are only 4 pattern pieces including placket and collar!  The shoulder "yoke" AND the sleeves are both cut-on.

The collar is a simple 1-pattern-piece, no stand. That saves a bunch of steps right there! The placket is a separate piece that folds to the outside and is topstitched in place (easy to add trimmings under before topstitching!)

You can see I'm not quite finished.  I have to slipstitch the collar down inside, and add buttons and buttonholes.

I need to hem the sleeves too.  They're a simple turned-under hem in the pattern, but I could make a scalloped facing to apply.  The scalloped sleeves on Amy's blouse are one of my favorite details.

I also wanted pink lucite or pearl buttons, just like the inspiration top, and would you believe I don't have any?  The closest I could come was lavender 1" pearl, which are way too big.  So I made a trip to Wally World yesterday (no small feat...as you know, I hate WM) to see if they had any.  Nope.   But they did have a clear pink plastic button in a "flower" shape.  I'm going to tack them down with a glue stick later today and see if they're too girly.

Hopefully not! I want to wear this!

Vtg McCall 5600

Here's McCall 5600, a mid-1940s blouse pattern:


It is SUCH a sweet little blouse! I love it! I made my version in a white spotted voile, nearly a dead ringer for the cover illustration. I made View B, with the yoke from View A.


View B has a separate pattern piece for the yoke, a straight piece with darts marked to miter a straight piece of lace or ribbon to create the yoke. Very clever! View A has a traditional square-shaped yoke piece that is self-fabric faced. I love the gathered center front! I needed no alteration to this pattern other than scooting the CF away from the fold 1.5" to allow for a bit of an FBA.


The yoke is applied to the bodice front/back by turning under the seam allowance on the yoke, then topstitching in place. I see this technique all the time on 1930s and 1940s patterns. There were so many interesting seams in that era, and using this technique would be the easiest way to achieve intricate seaming. Here's a closeup of the topstitching:


The facing is then handstitched to the inside, covering the seam.


The back bodice has a small, faced placket. The placket & facing square are slit, stitched along the edge of the slit, then the facing turned in. Edges are turned under and topstitched. Very simple and actually very pretty! There is a loop & button closure at the neckline.


I used a vintage white rhinestone center button. It's just faded and "old" enough to make me very happy to see it at the back neck! Hopefully the rhinestone doesn't fall out the first time I handwash this blouse! (I have spare rhinestones, no worries!) My blanket-stitched button loop is just sad. I'll be cutting it off and redoing it shortly. I'm out of practice!


There are tiny turned up hems at the sleeves and hem. I did not gather and apply the binding to the short, puffed sleeve. It was a last minute decision because I thought the fluttery effect was well suited to this voile blouse.


I will say the center front gathering does have the slightest maternity look if untucked. But the fabric is lightweight enough that it does not pouf out in the least. I've already worn it! I wore it to the movies last night with my buddy StickGirl. I didn't get a photo of it on, but I'll try to get one in the next couple of days. I spilled coffee on it getting in the car for the ride home of course! So it's already been handwashed and needs pressed again.

Love, Love Love this. I can see more in my future! One of the things I've been learning from my vintage pattern endeavors, is to slow down and pay attention to the experience of creating garments. There are so many little bits of sewing information and techniques that require you to take your time or at least put a little though into them.

For example, carefully pressing under the seam allowance of the yoke with precision so that it matches the seamline of the blouse, or creating a blanket-stitched thread loop by hand. Every few steps in the instructions there is reason for me to pause and take my time in the creation process.

Nothing I've encountered has been difficult or, to be honest, better replaced by a more modern technique. In fact, I find I'm preferring the vintage techniques over modern shortcuts.

Next, I've got to finish a couple of skirts! I have 5 days of summer vacation left and I plan to make the most of them! One more parting shot of my pretty, vintage blouse:


I'll be cross-posting at We Sew Vintage!