HSM2020: Challenge 4 - Local, an 1890s blouse

The theme for the HSM challenge in April is local

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.

For the pattern I used my basic bodice that I did for a shirtwaist back in 2015. Since then I have gained quite a lot of weight, but since the pattern was meant to be poufy it still fit, I did add a few centimeters to the center back, but didn't do anything to the front. I also want to be able to wear this blouse without a corset, since I'm planning on using it at work in or 1897 cottage.

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.

 This is the pattern for the collar, I had to tweak the TV493 pattern, so that there was a bigger difference between the bottom and top of the collar, that was also done with two darts. That way the collar naturally curves out towards the neck, and that helped mas that the neck opening should probably have been even tighter. The collar is quite soft since I didn't use any interfacing, just two layers of the cotton fabric.

 This was the bodice with the collar. Unfortunately the work with the neckline, and the raising of the shoulder seam had shortened the bodice. I might have to add a peplum to it, to keep it from riding up over the waistband of the skirt when I'm wearing it, but I will see if this is ok first.

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

I sewed the upper and bottom part of the sleeves and then attached them together before adding them to the bodice.

The final thing was to hem the sleeves and the bottom of the blouse.

The HSM facts

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)