Support your local industry and your local history by making something that (as much as possible) uses materials made locally, or purchased from local suppliers, or that features a garment specific to your part of the world.For that reason I decided to go to the only local fabric store in the area, the one in my neighbouring town, yes I live in a town with any craft stores. So I went to Rosa Huset in Borlänge. I usually don't go there, since I don't have a car, but at the moment I'm taking care of my mother's car. Once at the store I realized that it would be a bit difficult to find good fabrics for historical costumes, it mostly had knitted fabrics and very modern prints, great selections but not what I was after. In the end I found this floralr print in cotton, and since I have been thinkging a lot about 1890s clothing I decided to buy 2 meters and make a blouse or shirtwaist out of it. Now floral prints were not common in shirtwaists, but they do exist, it was a lot more common with white or other solid colours for the shirtwaists. Still I liked the print and wanted to use it.
I cut out the bodice, and realized that there was one big issue, the neck opening was quite large, and I wanted it to be snug with a high collar. I did add a dart in the center back to see what difference it would make.
The dart was good for shaping, but I woud need to take in a lot more. Since there would be a lot of fiddling with the neck I decided to finish the rest of the bodice first, so I would be able to close the blouse.
The front sides where turned in twice and then I sewed the buttonholes, by machine, and the buttons. Now it was time see what I could do with the neck opening. I started with taking in quite a bit at the shoulder seam, thus raising the whole bodice upwards. I then cut out a collar piece from my TV493 pattern and tested how tight I wanted it to be. When I had a good fit for the collar it was time to match the collar to the neck opening. In the end I added four darts, two at the back and one on each front and that gave me the fit I wanted.
For the sleeves I started with a sleeve pattern that I had started to workon for my Daisy dress. It's based on my standard short 18th century sleeve, but I had made it bigger to get a puffy sleeve. This was a good test to see if I need to make it even bigger for Daisy (yes, she needs really big puffy sleeves). For the lower sleeve I used the sleeves from TV493. I really like that two piece sleeve that is slightly shaped.
The upper part of the sleeve |
The final thing was to hem the sleeves and the bottom of the blouse.
What the item is: An 1890s blouse
How it fits the challenge: The fabric, thread and buttons were all bought in the only fairly local fabric store I have access to
Material: 2m cotton, 11 wood buttons
Pattern: It's Frankenpatterned from the 1911 Dressmakers guide and TV493
Year: 1890s
Notions: thread, buttons
How historically accurate is it? The pattern and shape is accrate. I have used modern sewing thread and it's all sewn on my modern machine. Floral blouses were around, but monochrome was more common. All in all around 50%
Hours to complete: one day
First worn: Not yet, since all events are cancelled for the near future
Total cost: $20 (the fabric was 50% off)
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