A 30s blouse victory

I decided now that my serger was up and running to go on and knock out a project that I have been wanting to do for some time.

As you all remember, when I was doing a mock up for my jeans, I intended on using them for jimjam bottoms and I wanted to go on and try out my 30s blouse repro for the jimjam top.

Well, I went on and did it.

I just love a pile of cut and prepped cotton chambray all waiting for the serger. It still amazes me how something like this, a pile of cut pieces will be a garment of some kind soon.

Serging (yay) the pieces took no time. Once that was out of the way I prepped the gathered pieces with a basting stitch and set those aside.

The blouse has a front button up placket. This was something I had never rightly done with much success. It's a very masculine type of blouse. I think that was on purpose. The fact that it's an over blouse and has a belt adds to the femininity of the look. In any case, this is for sleeping in, I think...so I was willing to make mistakes on it.

I ironed the front placket, pressing down the seam allowances. I didn't press in the allowance on the back fold of the placket. I didn't know how straight I was gonna be able to sew this thing, and I might need the extra fabric that that allows. Next I sewed closed the top part of the placket, sans the seam allowance. That was folded in, and any bulk was clipped away.

I then did the button holes on the front placket. This was the only time I can recall that I added button holes *before* I finished a garment.

I generally don't like to add finishings before the garment is complete because of all the alterations I tend to make. This time it was the only way I could do it because I don't think that I would have been able to get that button hole down there at the point!

For the under placket (both cut from the same piece) I snipped off the point and folded it under. I sewed that to the side of the blouse first and it went on like a champ. That was in part to my Gute thread and the fact that this cotton behaves like paper. Its wonderful.

I matched up the front placket to the markings and stitched it as the instructions said.

No problem.

Until I tried it on.

This is a prime example of what I mean when I say my upper bust is small for my size. See how the placket completely overlaps itself. There is in excess 2" up there that I'll have to get rid of. I marked the placement for the placket against my neck, opened the side stitches and figgled with the placket until I got it laying straight.

That's a lot of fabric off the front. If I had known it was going to be that drastic I would have increased the gathers at the yoke. I'll have to do that on the next one because if I alter it this way I'll be doing something funky with stripage if I decide to use that type of fabric.

The whole alteration, from cutting to repositioning took all of ten minutes. I was happy about that. Once I was done (I just folded back the excess fabric and repositioned the placket) I attached the sleeves and collar.

I did make a blunder on the collar. Well, one for me anyway. The collar attaches with a top stitch all the way around. Well, as I'm sure most of you all know, Mama don't like topstitching, but I had to do some for this one in any case. I attached the under collar first then sewed on the top of the collar. It was that meeting point in the center of the placket that I was concerned about. I started stitching about an inch inside from the start of the seam and I went back and hand tacked that part down.

It's a much cleaner look, but I wish I had paid more attention. I overlapped the collar just a hair too much and I'm getting fold over. Again, not a big deal to some, and because this is my first go at this pattern, totally not a big deal, but I now know that I left open too much seam allowance when I was stitching that collar on.

The rest of the blouse, because it's cut on the fold, was a cakewalk to put together. I did 3/4 sleeves because it's gonna be a night shirt and I also deepened the armholes a bit for that reason. I do really like it and I totally see this in a velvet or a patterned linen.

So now I have some complete pajamas! Yay! As for my wool crepe 30s dress, it's nearly complete. I'm letting it hang for a couple of days to let the fabric lay better. I just have to add the sleeves. For some reason I was just intrigued by the notion of slow sewing, like the slow food movement, and I do that anyway, I guess I'm just fast at it. But I do like the idea of crafting a garment rather than making one and even with this tester I wanted to have the same level of finishing as I would on any of my other garments.

Well...I did do one quick cheat.

I machine stitched my hems on the blouse and the sleeves. Eh, I'll let that go.