Finished! Simplicity 3328: 1940s blouse

Another first for 2015! I managed to get the whole way through finishing a project from one of my vintage patterns. I was hugely inspired last year by A Stitching Odyssey's vintage pledge, but not able to join in, that when I came across her twitter pledge this year, I decided I should get involved.   I don't have many vintage patterns, but enough to fulfill a pledge of sewing 3 this year.  

 

Original Filterless Glory

With all the optimism and impatience of starting As Soon As Possible, I decided to crack open the Simplicity 3328.  A 1940's vintage, the slight drape of the top and the collar fastening appealed to me .. The pattern picture has a slightly casual aspect to it, yet in the right fabric it could be quite smart and formal.  













Like many vintage patterns I've come across, it comes in a fixed size.  The pattern I have is for a 40 bust - a little on the large size for me in today's world, but as I've also read that vintage sizes might be on the lean side of generous I thought to just cut it out and see what would happen when I made it up.  


Fabric:  I chose a drapey fabric from my stash.. something that would have cost me about £1.20 per metre from the fabulous Dongdaemun in Seoul.  Slightly stupidly, for that price, I didn't buy very much of it.. and so had to be careful cutting it out.   I'm not sure what it is exactly, it has a slightly crepe texture to it, which I like, and it's not too sheer - so possible to wear it without needing a vest or camisole underneath.  

Construction:  There were a few things I didn't quite understand about the pattern, namely the lack of pattern pieces for facings, apparently a common practice with vintage patterns - saving valuable paper space and also an assumption that the sewer has knowledge of cutting these.  I didn't realise much of this until after I'd cut out my pieces and found myself needing to find fabric for a collar and back neck facing  \@@/  Still... good lessons to have learned!   

Likes: I like the look of the collar and the tucks in the front and back of the blouse give it a lovely fitted shape, despite being so fluid a fabric.  Also, I struggled to figure out what to do with the front placket (these seem to be this month's bugbears) so I hand tacked then hand sewed it into place to be better able to control the fabric.  I'm not so stoked with the finish, but it's done and holds its shape…

Collar!

Buttons that match the pattern! Brilliant

Next time: I definitely want to make this up again and have earmarked some less slippery fabric.  However, I could have done with interfacing the collar and placket to give extra support overall to the blouse.  Now that I know how to construct the placket I can pay extra attention to the finishing, and stiffening it slightly would have helped prevent it from flopping around the sewing machine^

I think I'd give myself a 6/10! 

Finished Project: Granville Shirt

2015 Resolutions!  I've been sewing for a while, but have not been so good with time… Reading the many fantastic sewing blogs online I am always curious of how others can find the time to sew, work, manage a social life.. and write it all down.  But, a change of job means less time spent at work and a new apartment allows me a dedicated work space, so 2015 will be the year I finish all those projects and, not only complete them hems and all, but also make the effort to finish them to the point that I am pleased with my work.

My first sewing project finished, and super proud of, is Sewaholic's Granville shirt.  I do have a couple of shirt patterns, and as yet an unfinished craftsy course, but I saw Two Random Words blog post on it and decided this was the pattern I Had To Have.





Fitting:  I initially cut out a 14 and made a toile.. While it fitted around the bust, it was baggy around my waist and shoulders (a problem I always find) and hugely baggy under the bust.  I poured over the photos that Sophie-Lee had posted, hers seemed more fitted, so a recut was needed.  I found a fantastic FBA tutorial by Mary on Curvy Sewing Collective and recut my shoulders/neckline at an 8.. graded out to 10 for the bust and down to 14 at the hips.  The pattern looked a strange monster, particularly around the waist.. but the fit is great.  I lost all the bagginess under the bust and the waist and hips look more streamlined.  I still had to reduce my shoulder seams in by 1" further, but that was an easy fix.  The sleeve length is a little too long for me, but as I don't intend to wear the sleeves down, it's not a problem.

Materials & Notions:  I used a linen cotton mix from my fabric stash and I think the slight stiffness of the fabric suits the structured shape of the shirt well.  As I was too impatient to go out and source more interfacing I used what I had available, which might have just been on the too-thick side.  I didn't interface the cuffs, as I plan to always roll up the sleeves. 

Achievements:  I finished a shirt!  Haha.. Lots of firsts for me with this project - a collar with a collar stand.. a successful FBA… Plackets - which actually caused me a little confusion in the instructions, but doing a practice run first on scrap fabric helped a lot.. The triangular points are still not entirely symmetrical, but I'm super pleased with the overall look.

Likes:  I love the princess seam back - it's super flattering, and the length.. again very flattering. I don't often tuck clothes in, so it's great to have a shirt that also looks good loose.  I also love the pattern construction… I needed a good sit down with a cup of tea to figure out some parts (yoke & placket) but I put that down to overall impatience at not reading everything properly the first time round^^

Next time:  I will definitely use a less stiff interfacing… and I'm excited to try this in a lighter weight fabric too.. I left off the pockets as I'm not too sure about bust pockets on larger busts.

I love this shirt - I've worn it a few times to work, and as it has, on each time, successfully avoided being easily identified as homemade, it's a winner!

A New Year, A New Start