Sewing a 1940's blouse using Liberty London fabric ~ How to sew a blouse like it's the 1940's

Hello my loves, in today's

sewing

project I am traveling back in time to the

1940

s and I am going to make one of my favorite

blouse

patterns

using

a delicious Liberty grass that has been languishing in my stash for far too long now that I have I made a couple of modifications to this pattern because I created a bodice with a yoke instead of the standard bodice that comes in the pattern and I also made a different sleeve and there is a video about this that I will put here or here or here or here or wherever and It's about how to make a puffle with high shoulders a little like this shirt dress I'm wearing.

Autumn has definitely arrived almost overnight here on the south coast of Mary England, it has me hankering for some new pieces to add to my wardrobe and what I intend to do is simply add some tried and tested staple pieces in gorgeous

fabric

s that I will really enjoy

using

. All relevant links and related gubbins will disappear. below for you and there are also two additional tutorials to accompany this video, so you will find out how to sew a French seam if you find it useful or want to know and also how to sew a yoke using the burrito method, which contrary to What could I think?

It is not delicious food, but it is a very ingenious, almost magical way of

sewing

a yolk in a very, very professional way, in general, darts, etc., are the first things to do. This pattern has these little folds, so I'll transfer them through them. Call them pleats here, but essentially instead of darts you put them together and sew a line which together is a very vintage little feature that really makes this look very 40s, if you wanted to you could actually leave out the sour pleat, whatever be. call it and then you have a different type of look, maybe more casual for this

blouse

, it's a very adaptable blouse, that's why I've made it 20 million times and I've probably already bought you senseless with all the variations I've been making , so what I do is when I sew, I call it the ready-made method, but actually it's like it's a batch production, so I prepare all the sewing bits that I can do before then maybe you need to overlock all the bits or, you know, pin all the next bits or sew all the next bits, so that's what I'm going to do and I've got everything here pinned for the first bit, I'm just going to have a It was a pleasant time with Bertha sewing a beautiful Liberty

fabric

.

I'm using a nice, sharp size 12 needle for thicker Liberty grass than that, and you're going to get pinholes in the needle holes of your fabric, such a nice, sharp size 12 needle. I'm just sorting out the gathering so on the front panel there is a gather that goes towards the front yoke and I also did this on the back so I put it together, I probably could have done that. like a little more extended, but you know, it is what it is and that's how I make sure the gathering fits what's being sewn, so I pull on the threads that are the bobbin threads and I just pick them up . that and I continue to line it up and make sure I've put the other threads in the back as well and when I'm happy that they're lined up and they're going to sew together super nicely, I tie them like this I'm going to repeat that for all the gathered parts, not on the sleeves but on the body of the blouse and I have to say that the lighting in this video is going to be a little erratic because it's that time of year, so some parts are going to be atmospheric and other parts are going to be blindingly bright.

Here is the yolk panel I adapted. I just traced the top of the back pattern piece and I didn't have enough fabric to cut both yoke pieces so the outside and inside yoke or lining on the fold so I'll have to sew this and then press this seam to open it up and then we're ready to make burritos so let there be light okay so the process of putting them on using a French seam is pretty much exactly the same way you would do it if you were just using a different method with the right sides together and I would pin at that intersection the intersection of the armpits there the intersection of the armpits on the other side and work my way. but we're french sewing so the wrong sides are together and what I do is I pin one side so the fabric fits and make sure this part here is lined up and pin down to the sort of gathered stitches on one. side and then I pinned the whole other side to the other side of the gathering stitches, which I really hope makes sense, but I'll do it and show you, so here I've pinned the sleeve to the body wrong. sides together to where the gathering point starts or ends, whatever it is, I left that piece because I need to gather it and then I pinned it from there to that piece, where the gathering begins or ends.

Here are the meeting points and what I'm going to do is just put them together. Liberty Cotton's Liberty fabrics are a real pleasure to work with. They are so beautiful to use. They are a real pleasure because they are expensive, expensive, expensive, but. I have things that I made with Liberty Print many years ago and they still look beautiful and they look so good that sometimes I think you know they are really worth it and they are so beautiful that they never lose their beauty so one of my things is definitely to think wisely about fabrics to have things that I enjoy wearing and treasure in my wardrobe things that make me feel fabulous and if that means not buying five fabrics and just buying one Liberty print fabric to make something more beautiful, then maybe that's a good choice , but you know, let me know what you think.

You are always so wise, my loves, you always give me such incredible comments, it is always a true joy. really very helpful in my sewing journey which I love to share with you so here is the gathering part done and then I basically just pinned it in place, sewed the sleeve using an edge stitch and now comes the be brave because what we have to do is trim this seam allowance and this is the same on the straight seams and around this curve, but the curve may look a little more dangerous and what you want to do is leave a few millimeters of fabric there if you leave too much when you get there, then the next part you'll have all the threads, you know, and so on, so you know hanging off the seam, so I'm going to turn that seam. like this, I'm going to press it with my finger and just pin it as I go.

You could use an iron, but I find that because this is a curve that's a little tricky and if you're using a slippery fabric, you know it's I'm going to add more danger to an already dangerous part of the process, so I'm going to set this progress up now, the sleeves are tucked in and french sewn here, so next is sewing the side seams. I'm going to do that here. They are our French seams, they are all sewn and look beautiful and neat. Of course, if you were making lingerie or another type of garment, you can make your French seams even finer, but I'm very happy with that, so catch up so quickly I have a scrunchie. down here, but basically the blouse is like this, the french seams are french seam sleeves, everything looks good, so I'm going to continue with the collar now, those of you who spend time with me know that I don't like to use interlining. and I could use another piece of lawn or calico or silk or gans.

I like to do that, but I don't use anything for this. I just want a really lovely soft blouse and when I look at vintage pieces quite often I don't really have anything that boosts the color so I'm going to use that as an excuse to get to the center of the neck with the center of the neck right where I took these pins out, I guess you could make a notch. but I find I don't like notching necklines, I don't know why it's probably silly here we go there and then I do the same thing until I get to the other side I think the real pattern has notches and all sorts but I'm very naughty when it comes of notches, I'm just going to sew the edge of this collar so that when I turn it it stays stable and what I'm going to do right before I sew this in front of all of this one down is I'm going to do a very fine little basting stitch so I can um then sew the top down.

I always face my fears well and I have trimmed the seam allowance on this neck edge and I have carefully notched the whole time because I just want to see if there is any difference in the way the garment fits and fits, so I'm going to press this now and pin the sight so I have notch here that indicates how much to fold back and then I'm going to pin it in place and then I'm going to sew the machine so it's facing down, okay, we're almost done here. I just made a very small twist and turned on the hem. the sleeve cuff on this hem I have done a machine rolled stitch, not incredibly well I have to say and I don't really know why either, but hey, I do know why this front part here has become a little shaky, like this I'm going to have to look at that and just modify it because it should look good like this, there's absolutely no reason for that.

I probably stretched it or something while I was sewing, so I have to sew on the buttons now that I bought these lovely ones. glass buttons to see if we will focus on the braggart's daughter, the beautiful glass, but now I see them next to the print, it's like they don't really work, the shade of pink is a little off and also the buttons are so pretty , they need to be on something that gets the most out of them, so that was the plan, but I only have some very standard plastic blanks, but they work with this for now, so I think what I'll do is I'll make temporary buttons and find some buttons top.

Better buttons. I have another of these shirts in another beautiful cotton, not Liberty, and they both need better buttons. God, I can't say that's that hard. buttons best buttons best buttons I have marked the position of the buttons on the button stand and am just using the settings. I can't really see very well there, but I'm just using the eyelet setting on my machine um very Simple, I also have to use my close up glasses because actually yeah, I can't see very well, especially with buttons, but then looking here, they say, oh right, my eyes, so I need it. bifocals various voices I don't know voices anyway I'm going to continue with the buttons and then I'll put the buttons on and then we're ready and here is my finished 40's blouse with a yolk sewn using the burrito method, check out the other video that accompanies this one.

I'm really happy with the puffed sleeves and yolk and even the little detail that went a little wrong on the front, which I need to fix, doesn't bother me too much. I'm looking forward to using this one. throughout autumn and winter and I love this pink fabric from Liberty of London combined with this black skirt, a winning combination. Thank you so much for spending time with me in my little seaside cabin today. I really hope you enjoyed this. sewing like it's the

1940

s video if you're new here and haven't subscribed yet, I'd love for you to subscribe.

I love sharing my sewing and crafting adventures with you and the more I say, the better. Until next time my loves, stay safe, stay well and I'll see you soon, bye.