Crepe de Chine blouse - completed

Just wanted to share a photo of the completed blouse I posted about recently.

I'm pleased with it although I need to make a camisole to wear under it. Alternatively I can wear it with my new waistcoat:

Vintage fabric blouse

This fabric had everyone at my sewing class cooing over it, I don't know exactly how old this fabric is but my grandmother has had it at least since the war! My sewing tutor said it could easily be 30s/40s so I tried to take extra care when using it. Here's a photo of the blouse I made with it, during construction:

It's now almost complete, just the buttonholes on the sleeves to add so will post an updated photo when I get one. The fabric is a delicate, quite sheer crepe de Chine (I'd never heard of this until now!) so I had to work the entire thing using French seams which was a first for me, but which gave really pleasing results as the inside is just as neat as the outside. However I had a terrible time with the Peter Pan collar, the instructions on the pattern (New Look 6078) really weren't right, I wish I'd read up on patternreview.com before starting but you live and learn!

The final result is really lovely but it fits very snugly so I may need to let out the darts a touch and it's quite sheer so I will need some sort of camisole to wear underneath.

I got some buttons at 5p each at a local knitting store so again this make was virtually free! I'm on a roll!

Shirt Project Update

I've been busy over the last week and made only slow progress with my shirt project, but I finally have photographs to show for the work I've done so far! My garment photography is very poor I'm afraid. You can see, though, how there's no placket down the front of the shirt. It does look a little lost without this, but it might look better once the snaps are on.

Here you can see the western-style detail on the chest, I don't know the terminology but it's like a mini yoke on either shoulder. I think these have worked well.

You should be able to see from this picture how there's no collar stand/base. The pattern also included a small button loop that you can see here, this seems to be a bowling shirt feature that wouldn't normally be found on a western shirt, so I'm a bit worried that it's going to look odd with the pearl snaps.

The pockets are ok but I'm annoyed that there's some definite puckering all the way around, I'm really not sure what's caused this so I'll have to do some research on how I could have made this sit more neatly.

I'm particularly pleased with my seams, which you can't see much in these photos, but I used 'Run and Fell Seams', or I've also seen them called 'Flat Felled Seams', across the shoulders, down the sides and round the sleeves. This is basically the flat double-stitched that you see mostly on jeans, as shown in this photo. It makes for very neat seams on both sides and most western shirts use this all the way round. I'll be posting a tutorial very soon on how to achieve this look.

Still to do are:
- the bottom hem
- adding the pearl snaps (I'm aiming to create a tutorial for this)
- adding a flap over each pocket to add to the western style

Shirt project

I'm currently working on a shirt for my other half, it's the first time I've attempted a man's shirt although making my shirt dress (see below) definitely helped. However for this project I particularly wanted to do a Western style shirt, you know, the classic cowboy-style like these Levi shirts:

I was *really* disappointed with the range of patterns available for men's shirts, I didn't feel I had much choice at all. There was just one pattern that had that western-style look, Simplicity 4760 - it's the short sleeved pattern B that I was interested in:

Having bought this pattern, the only appropriate one I could find, I didn't really think about it or look too closely at it until I started putting all the pattern pieces together. Now that I'm more than half way through making the shirt, I realise that this shirt pattern has a plain front, i.e. doesn't include a placket for the front of the shirt (you know, the extra bit of fabric that forms a line down the front edge, where the buttonholes go), which really would have given this shirt a smarter, more finished feel. Quite disappointed by that.

On top of that, I realised that the shirt collar is flat, it doesn't have a base/stand for the main part of the collar to attach to, it just joins right at the neck. Here are a couple of photos from Made To Measure, 'Anatomy of a Shirt by Alexander West', to help you see what I'm on about:


Overall it turns out this pattern is really more like a bowling shirt than a 'proper' western shirt and I'm really disappointed. As a project it's come together fairly well, although the sleeves took me quite a while to attach, and there was a small amount of puckering that I haven't yet figured out how to eliminate. Still it's all good practise.

What I'm really excited about though, is the final touch - I'll be using pearl snaps, and I've never used snaps before so I'll need to do my research and hopefully will be posting a tutorial here some time in the next week or so!

I actually had an *incredibly* hard time tracking down authentic western-style pearl snaps to use, I had to import them from America can you believe! Found an excellent seller on Etsy though, Cowgirl Snaps - 24 colours available, really great seller. You should check her out, they really make all the difference if you're looking for an authentic western-style shirt, it's all about the attention to detail. Can't wait to use the left over snaps on a fitted girl shirt for myself!

Photos of this project to follow very soon...