New Designs for October, Miroir des Modes, Oct. 1907

My translation of Lauren of Wearing History's article on blouse patterns from Miroir des Modes, October 1907.

[From left to right:]

In Bourdeaux (red) taffeta with Irish guipure

In light blue louisineand guipure

In black marquisetteand braid

New Designs for October

The success with which certain of our already-published designs have been favored leads us to give them new aspects.  The quantities required are given for each design.

Hats are one of the most interesting subjects to treat on at the beginning of the Autumn.  The designs for tomorrow will be very big (the front especially, very large) and generally flat, often devoid of barrettes.  The high calottes with slender and straight trim positioned on the front will be very much in favor.  Japanese and Chinese braids have not said their last word and the most renowned modistesemploy them in a profusion of puffs, voluminous knots, and borders.  Among the flowers most pursued by the modistes we note the large-petaled peony, whose persistent success permits it to be made to bloom even in full autumn.  Somber shades have been accentuated and are based in sumptuous purples or cerise, the two preferred colors.

A hat which is appropriate for the first cool days of the season and is specially intended for walking in the morning even during the winter is of light beige felt, rather small in the crown, with the passe lightly lowered to follow the contour of the head.  A bronze silk scarf surrounds the calotte and on the left is positioned an enormous knot of silk and very raised brown wings.

1481 – Corsage Blousefor Ladies

This waist is mounted on a lining whose top part is fitted with an inserted yoke.  This can be lengthened to the waist like a plastron or be cut at the top of the bust.  One can make this yoke from lace, or when silk or another fabric is used soutache will make a pretty trimming as shown in our print.  The flat and high manchettes are made in lace and the folded manchettes end them at the elbow in forming the trim for the short sleeves when those are used.  If a straight collar is not preferred one can cut a squared neckline.  The short pleats distribute the fullness in a becoming fashion over the bust and a supple leather belt encircles the waist.  The fabrics which agree the best for making it are batiste, linen, muslin, dimity, and light and supple silks.

Pattern 1481 is sold in 7 sizes, for ladies with chests of 81-112cm [32.4-44.8in].  For an 86cm bust [34.4in] making up the waist takes 2.25m [2.5yds] of 88cm [35.2in] fabric or 1.95m [2.17yds] of 110cm [44in] fabric in one material, or 2.95m [3.28yds] of 52cm [20.8in] silk with 1.40m [1.56yds] of 46cm [18.4in] wide lace.  Price of pattern: 1.25 francs.

 [From left to right:]

In crêpe de Chine with guipure

No. 1504 Waist

No. 1504 in white batiste with insertion and embroidery motifs

No. 1504 in black satinet and guipure on filet net

In satined taffeta with guipure

No. 1412 Waist

1504 – Pleated or gathered Waist for Ladies

This type of blouse has the advantage of lending itself to embroidered decorations with a most charming effect.  The embroidery of the yoke is made on domestic fabric with insertions of Valenciennes lace, together with borders, at the joining of the points made by the insertion for the collar and the high cuffs; on the cuffs, a row of insertion and a row of embroidery is inserted.  One can, instead of making the embroidery itself, buy manufactured medallions in stores which will give as good results.  Another fashion of reproducing this elegant blouse is to make the yoke of a single piece and the edges with a number of points; without embroidering the yoke, one could make it in Cluny lace or in guipure; the two methods are equally graceful.  The bodice must be lined, with the exception of the yoke if it is made of guipure.  The front and the back are trimmed with pintucks, if one prefers gathers one can gather it, the neckline can be décolleté or with a collar.  The sleeves are puffed, short or long, both ending in a cuff or a band of guipure.

Pattern 1504 is sold in 7 sizes, for ladies with chests of 81-112cm [32.4-44.8in], for an 86cm  [34.4in] bust making the bodice requires 2.60m [2.89yds] of 88cm [35.2in] fabric or 1.85m [2.05yds] of 110cm [44in] fabric.  Price of the pattern: 1.25 francs.

1412 – Pleated or gathered Waist for Ladies

Bodice 1412 is sold in 7 sizes, for 76-107cm [30.4-42.8in] busts.  For the medium size, making this blouse takes 3m [3.33yds] of 70cm [28in] fabric, or 1.85m [2.05yds] of 110cm [44in] fabric with 75cm [30in] of 46cm [18.4in] wide lace to cover the collar, the yoke, and the cuffs.  Price of the pattern: 1.25 francs.

WHAT SORT OF FUR will one wear this winter?  This is the question which absorbs everyone.  If the elegant women are impatient to have new and costly furs, those who are sensitive to the cold look to shelter themselves in warm furs.  The reasonable and economical woman will make her winter choice during the summer, for she knows that she could have very beautiful ones at a very reduced price, called the summer price.  The pécan or fisher is a long-haired fur of very ordinary and coarse aspect compared to the sable which seems to be fading out to cede its place to the latter and to fox.  Skunk fur has ceased to please.  It is one of the most recent decrees from our most skilled furriers, who devote all their care to rich furs such as fox.  After having dyed its fur, with the aid of a dontils product sprinkle it and spot it with a very skilled and experienced hand.  This spotted fox which is extremely sought-after will be the fashionable fur.

More about → New Designs for October, Miroir des Modes, Oct. 1907

1912 Project - Blouse #0219

This is my second garment for the VPLL 1912 Project, and my first done in normal scale and without any instructions.  For fabric, I used a large piece of $2/yd green checked cotton I'd bought for making a muslin a while back, which happened to match up with what the pattern recommended.  The reasons I picked this pattern are that I want to be more comfortable with blouse sewing, I'd like a 1912 blouse, and I find the emphasis on the shoulders which was very common from about 1906 on, which is present in the blouse, to be very interesting.




I started off by printing the pattern pieces from the "Oversize A0" pattern file on regular paper, cutting them out and taping them together where necessary, and working out the scale.  I then scaled them up onto newspaper by hand.  Technically, this isn't necessary, but I prefer doing it this way to printing out 17 pieces of paper and putting them all together.  (It would be excellent if one version of the pattern PDFs were arranged for this, with a printed scale!)  Since the original pattern was for a 36" bust and I have a 39.5" bust in a modern bra (but less in a corset, although I didn't bother to measure), I added a few inches to the body pieces at the seams just left and right of center front and back; to compensate, I added in the same to the yoke pieces at their seams.  After finishing the piecing, I realized that this wasn't the best way to add width: it was still too tight at the shoulders.  I should also have slashed the pattern down the sleeve and widened it in that direction as well.  Take note, future pattern users!  If altering it more, it's important to keep the yoke going out about to the shoulder (which probably helps the sleeve to fit).

At first I was going to sew it all by hand, but a) the point of this project is to figure out the patterns in a decent amount of time, and b) the 1912 home sewer would have had a machine and been happy to use it, so I went with that.  Thinking about methods of machine-sewing, I realized that the first step would be to put together the yoke, flat-fell the seams, do the short pleats on the body, and then sew it all together.  Easier said than done!  The yoke went together well; I sewed the pleats down too close to the edge, but when I flipped the pieces over I liked how they looked pointing the wrong way.  However, it took me a few days of pinning and repinning to get the corners on the seams correct.  I had to spend an evening just visualizing it to figure out how to do it, and it's not something I can explain with words.  In the end, I didn't do the corners quite right, sewing up the front, back, and yoke-side seams in separate runs, not entirely connecting at the corners.

The side seams were quite tricky.  At first I wasn't sure of what to do for those weird slashes in the pattern, but after reading all of the dress diaries on the site I realized that they created zig-zag corners under the arms, and you just have to swivel the fabric around the corners as with the yoke.  I sewed the first seam from the bottom of the shirt out to the bottom of the sleeve, and the second from the bottom of the sleeve to the bottom of the shirt - maybe it was just that I'd had practice, but the second one was a lot easier, so maybe that's the right direction to go in.

Adding the button strips (two pieces on each side, sandwiching the yoke pieces) was simple, as was topstitching around the yoke, which was clearly done in the drawing that went with the pattern.  I let myself rest a little after that.  (NB: I'm not quite sure if I was meant to use four button band pieces - there was no indication, but I didn't like the idea of putting buttons and buttonholes on only one layer of fabric.)  The topstitching had the great effect of holding down the fabric where it was puffy around the corners and making me realize that I hadn't screwed it up that much after all.

While at work around this time, I checked out a woman's blouse from the same era that I knew was made to wear with detachable collars, and I took a few pictures for research purposes.

You can see that the shirt has a narrow band collar with buttonholes, so that shirt studs could be used to hold on the collar; the cuffs are also meant to be worn with cufflinks.

There is a waist tape sewn to the back that would tie in the front, to help hold the puff of the blouse in place.  I didn't end up adding this, but when I get a chance to try the blouse with a skirt I might find that it needs something similar.
 

I drafted my own neckband.  (I didn't make a collar, though.)  Drafted my own cuffs as well, just rectangles with curved corners on the hand edge.  I decided that both would be fastened with buttons rather than cufflinks, as I have buttons and don't have cufflinks.

The buttons I used came from my mom's large collection; they're shiny silver plastic with round fake mother-of-pearl centers.  Obviously the plastic isn't period-correct, but I've seen a lot of buttons and cufflinks and shirt studs of the period that look extremely similar.

Finished pictures:

  Oh, and because I don't think I've ever posted corset pictures - my 1911 corset.  It's far too big in the hips - it nearly laces shut in the back ... over my jeans.

I always have a hard time explaining exactly what I consider my sewing level to be, because I really haven't made that many things and I don't always sew neatly or properly, but I do have knowledge of various techniques, I have a deep well of enthusiasm that lets me fling myself headlong into any sewing project (my grandmother says she's impressed with my enthusiasm when she means "you really ought to slow down, you're not doing things right"), and I'm decent at figuring out puzzles.  So I put myself down as an "ambitious intermediate" sewer.  This pattern is equally difficult to categorize.  It's got only a few pieces, it doesn't require a very close fit anywhere but the shoulders, and there's no armscye so you don't have to worry at all about setting in sleeves - however, all the corners require either a lot of experience at machine sewing and/or a willingness to sit down with some practice fabric and fiddle with it for a while until you've gotten the hang of them.  I would say it's an intermediate pattern, but not necessarily one every intermediate sewer would be happy to do?

To sum up, the VPLL Checklist:

1.  Pattern: Ladies Blouse #0219
2. My Skill Level: I would call myself an "ambitious intermediate" - I'm not great at cutting and piecing and fitting, but I definitely will try anything that strikes my fancy.
3. Pattern Rating: 4 - The cut-in-one sleeves make it harder to alter for fit, but do mean that you completely avoid the dreaded Sleevil.
4. Pattern Skill Level: Hm.  Intermediate, I think, if you're ambitious and willing to do a practice run before making it in your nice fabric.  It's actually kind of simple as a pattern, it just has those tricky corners.
5. Instructions: None were given, but it was pretty straightforward to puzzle out.  I don't think any instructions could have helped me do those corners, anyway.
6. Fit: I did expect it to be a bit small for me, and it was.  This mostly showed itself in the shoulders.
7. Alterations: I altered only for fit, rather poorly.  Unless leaving out the detachable collar counts as an alteration.
8. Other Notes: 1) Those corners are tricky, in case I haven't made that clear.  2) The white linen collar requires a band collar on the blouse, which technically ought to have buttonholes on it for studs, but it's probably easier just to use buttons.

More about → 1912 Project - Blouse #0219