Pattern: Folkwear 205 Gibson Girl Blouse, heavily
modified
Fabric: Cotton batiste or muslin
Haberdasheries: 15 hooks
Next year marks the centenary of the beginning of the Great War (not
called thus because it was so great to fight in it, I’m sure). The teens style
had been one of my favourites for a while, so this seemed like a nice reason to
start making an outfit in that style.
For my first blouse, I used the Folkwear 205 pattern. But I modified it
in several ways, because I didn’t like every part of the design as it was, and
also, because I had a clear image in my head of how I wanted the blouse to look.
Firstly, I wanted a front closure for practicality. I tend not to have a
maid with me, so it’s really quite handy to be able to close things myself!
Also, I found the suggested lace insertions a bit strange, and wanted to do
vertical tucks over the entire front instead, so I combined the yoke and front
part. In order to be able to take out space by making the tucks, I first had to
add that space to the pattern. As the blouse did need to fit closely at the
shoulders, this resulted in the blouse being quite a bit wider at the waist
than at the bust, which I initially thought was a bit strange, but I saw a
blouse pattern from the period online which also had this shape.
I followed the pattern for the collar, but made it a bit higher and
added a very small ruffle at the top. I also lengthened the sleeved, added a tucked
cuff to it, and attached a small ruffle to that as well. But I did attach a
waistband according to the pattern ;).
White seems the colour of choice for most people making teens blouses,
whereas I read in the early 20th century Dutch magazine De Gracieuse
that they could have a wide variety of colours – even white with black stripes,
and chequered! So it seemed fun to make a bright-coloured blouse. However, with
the fabrics for my two planned skirts in mind, white was also the best option
for my blouse.
