Marfy 1940 Blouse

Departing from my SWAP plan already, and not a week into the contest. Shame on me. Technically, this was a muslin to test whether I had the pussy cat bow right and whether it worked on this pattern (which is designed with a slightly open neckline and a collar on a band).

I had planned to make a brown silk blouse. I had the silk sitting waiting on the table. But then this fabric leapt out of the stash at me. And it works well with both trouser fabrics, the denim jeans, one of the jackets, and the over dress. It also works well with the brown trousers I made recently. So it seemed sort of meant to be. Whether it becomes a SWAP extra, or a SWAP entry, I haven't yet decided. I think I'll make the other two blouses as originally planned and pick the two I like the best with the most items, for the SWAP entries.

The fabric is sheer polyester from Rosenbergs in 2010. To counteract the sheer nature, and make it Yorkshire climate suitable, I've bought two identical round neck, long sleeved, cotton tops from Primark in a yellowish brown shade. These will be worn under the blouse and won't show, as they read as nude under the fabric. I took a swatch to Primark and auditioned tops under the fabric. Got some funny looks I can tell you. Whilst trying on the blouse during construction, I found I can wear navy tops under as well, giving still more scope for underlayers. The scarf collar hides the round neck of the underlayer admirably and its difficult to tell that the shirt isn't being worn alone.

This version has a scarf neckline because I didn't have enough fabric to cut a really long pussy cat bow. This version has a fifty inch collar and won't quite tie into a neat bow. My neck measurement is 14 inches, if that helps. For the proper pussy cat bow I will make a 60-70 inch collar.

The fabric was very narrow, the print large and my attempts at matching the print were both wasteful of fabric and, as can be seen in the photo, ultimately doomed to failure. However, I don't think the lack of a match really shows that badly.

The collar is interfaced with lightweight stretch interfacing in the section that is worn around the neck. This makes it stand up nicely at the back and sides. This is a personal preference thing. I hate drafts on my neck and I like my jacket collars to be protected from my skin by my shirt collar. I believe it would be more normal to leave the entire collar un-interfaced and have it floppy all the way around.

The same interfacing is in the front bands and the cuffs. The stretch wasn't really needed but I didn't have a non stretch on hand that was light enough.

The fabric is very slightly crinkled which made it really, really difficult to sew. I tried overlocking but in the end, two rows of narrow zigzag on the sewing machine worked best. The fabric had to be pulled taut as it was sewed otherwise the seams were wavy. The seam allowances were trimmed very close to the second row of stitching.

Sleeves were put in flat. I used the sleeve from Marfy 0187 because the sleeve for 1940 is a hugely pleated, bell like affair and I didn't have enough fabric to attempt it.

The front bands were held down with steam a seam because I couldn't trust my machine not to make them go wavy if I sewed them. The hem is also stuck with steam a seam, which stabilised it enough to allow me to sew a straight stitch hem around the bottom.

The cuff openings were sewn, very inexpertly, by hand. I rolled the edges but I don't think I did it quite right. Though it doesn't show when the blouse is on.

Buttons are brown with a gold edge. Very small, very lightweight and hopefully quite unobtrusive, the pattern of the fabric being well able to speak for itself without distractingly fancy buttons.

Despite not being a print person, I really, really love my new blouse and can't wait to wear it.