Fitting A 1950s Blouse

Tuesday, I showed off my new blouse, made with Simplicity 4530.

The good news about this pattern, is that I am a Bust 36. But let's look at the rest of the measurements... waist, 30"; hip, 39". My measurements in both those areas are about 5" bigger, give or take. So, how did I go about getting this blouse to fit?


I started by tracing the pattern pieces. When I know I have to do a lot of alterations, whether a vintage pattern or a new, I trace. It has happened that I start cutting and slashing so much that a lot of distortion happens, and I want the original just in case I have to start over, or to compare what the shape is supposed to be. Also, I start losing where notches, etc. are.


OK, I trace, and then do a preliminary tissue fitting. I know the waist and hip is too small, but will I need to make any changes from shoulders to bust? After that, I altered the tissue to add 5" to both waist and hip, and made a muslin. Way back in December, I talked a bit about the muslin, and just click here to go back and read that.


After the muslin, I needed to do some final tweaking to the tissue, and that's what I'll show you now. The great thing about this pattern is that there are basically 2 pieces, the front and the back. There are front and back facings, and a cuff (which I used 3/8" seam allowances on) but only adjusted as necessary to match the adjustments to the main pieces.


The Front


If I'm adding 5" total, divide that by 4 (2-1/2" for the front, 1-1/4" for each front side). That seems much more manageable. Since each piece represents only 1/4 of your body. I'll take it step by step.

1. I shortened the sleeve by 3/4". I'm 5'3", so it worked for me, but I really did it so that I could cut the fabric doubled, and not in a single layer, cutting twice. Lazy or efficient, your call.


2. (Ignore the 'x' where I originally lowered the dart 2"). This shows the dart, lowered 1".


3. Instead of just adding 1-1/4" to the side, I did some slashing and spreading. This area is 3/8" added between the darts. Another method of adding width is to narrow or eliminate the darts, but I wanted to keep them. Making them a little further apart makes it more proportional.


4. Here, if I remember correctly, at the hem, the added amount is 3/4", tapering to nothing at the area which would be above my natural waist where I don't need extra width.


The Back

The back is a little more complicated.


1. This is a wedge taken out for my sway back alteration. It tapers to nothing at the side seam.


2. The wedge distorts the center back seam, so it must be re-straightened. The angled line at #2 is also the original hemline.


3. The wedge taken out in #1, is added back in at the hem. If you don't do this, your hemline pulls up oddly.


4. The darts. Again, you can eliminate these, but I like the fitted look. I did narrow them about 1/4" each (1/8" for each "leg" of the dart). I also spread them apart like I did in the front. Also, after doing the sway back wedge, I had to make the darts straight up and down again.


5. This is like the slash and spread on the front, spreading more at the hemline, tapering to nothing at the top.


6. This wedge of tissue is also re-added to the side. It was an area also affected by the sway back wedge.


7. Again, I think this is pointing to the line where I cut the piece to manipulate the darts, add wedges, etc.


Basically, the sway back alteration pulls and distorts, and pieces of tissue have to be added back in or taken out to straighten things back out. It's confusing, but it works.


Finally,

I matched the gingham by placing the tissue over the fabric, and then drawing the pattern onto the tissue, then I confirm that everything matches. Also confusing, but it works.


I hope all that made sense. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments, and I will reply in the comments so be sure to check back.


Simplicity 4530 sold on Tuesday to a lovely sewist from Canada. Other 1950s blouses still in the shop include:

Shirtdress Muslin #1

I knew going into this vintage shirtdress pattern, I would have to make some pretty substantial changes to get the top to fit. I did buy it close to my bust size. OK, maybe one size too small, but that shouldn't stop anyone. Here are my pattern pieces after making some changes that I knew I needed to make (i.e., widen at the waistline, and drop the armscye (is it still called that with a raglan sleeve?).

The changes are done in red. I did the back piece first, and then discovered a better way to widen the waist for the front by slashing a diagonal cut from waist outside the dart, up to the top point of the sleeve seam. It made it much neater and more predictable. I decided to go with the changes I made on the back anyway. And the muslin front:

Keeping in mind that my dress form is not quite my size (she has bigger boobs), you can see that there aren't too many problems with the front. The side dart I changed can actually be changed back. The main problem is with the raglan sleeve that is really much to narrow. Did they have stick arms back in the 50s? But, oh no on the back:

As you can see by the multiple lines, I can't really decide where I want the sleeve seam to be. I'll probably go with the middle line. Also, the darts were way too long. This dress, although slim, is actually drafted for someone who is about 6 feet tall! The original owner wrote on the outside of the envelope that the skirt is too long, and she shortened it about 4 or 5 inches, folding up the pattern. That hit on my lower shin. If I made it as is, it would be floor length! Those are some mighty fluffy crinolines that they were planning for I suppose.

Fabric update: I'm going to use the stripe, but I'm leaning toward a solid color top in the darker gray brown color. Hard to tell from the computer screen, but in the paint world it's probably called putty. Matching it may be a problem. And, I'm off to snip and rip. Where is my Fit for Real People book when I need it?!!