Costume Store - Victorian Blouse

On Thursday my fabric arrived at uni from the supplier just in time for my next costume store working day on Friday. I was a little worried that I'd be majorly behind on Friday as the vast majority of the class had recieved their fabric on Wednesday meaning they could have cut out, tacked and started on their blouses by now. However on Friday I was quite surprised, and mildly pleased, that half the class were in my situation and the other half had barely got anywhere with drafting their pattern. Now in a more positive mind set I began to prepare to myself for tackling the blouse.

My fabric, previously mentioned, was silk cotton (bleached agre)  in neutral soft colours of cream, brown etc. It seemed a really unusual choice of fabric for a blouse due to its strange texture and thickness. It reminded me of parchment paper and the natural weft of the fabric produced a pattern lightly wall paper like. It was very different to everyone else's floral/plain/thin striped fabric, which I quite liked. After ironing my fabric, folding it to the salvage and pinning down my pattern pieces, I set to work cutting out the sections of my blouse.This how I started off...

Whilst the fabric was folded salvage-to-salvage pin the pattern pieces down. Draw on the pattern require of the separate pieces and add on a 2.5cm seam allowance on each one.

Sew up all the darts; 4 on the back piece and the 2 on each of the front pieces. After this is done press the darts flat; darts on the back being pressed towards the center back and the darts on the front pieces being pressed towards the center front. Pressing them in these directions will help them to stay flat when worn/ applied to the body.

Now start on the sleeves. Cut along the incision line at the bottom of the sleeve. You'll need to bind this to create as smooth finish/ stop spreading a tear. From the top side sew your binding along the cut you've made making sure when you reach the point to stop the sewing machine, pivot the needle and then sew downwards. Fold the binding, press and top stitch down. On the inside of the sleeve make a small at the top of the incision/binding. This means you can pull the points over each other giving a better finish (flatter...).

Sew the seams together and press open/flat.

At the bottom of the sleeve fold the pleats and pin in place. Next pin the cuff down from one point of the cuff opening to the other, pinning over the pleats. Sew the cuff down and then fold over to top stitch. Top stitch down, press and then top stitch around all the cuff.

At this point I've now managed to construct both sleeves ready for attachment, buttons, embellishment and the darts in the main body of the garment. The next area I need to address is the organza pleated yoke and collar of the blouse which I will begin during the next assisted costume store session in the studio.