Sewing the 1912 Project E0335 Blouse

E0335 Pattern Illustration from the 1912 Project

I have been busy this week sewing the E0335 Blouse and I will have a much longer blog later with more details on this blouse. This blouse has small tucks and pin tucks down the front, small tucks down the back, lace collar and cuffs with lace and tucks, lapped seams on the sleeves and at the shoulders. I think it is very pretty, but the pattern and instructions are not quite complete.

So far this week, I have added a special pin tuck foot for my sewing machine, learned how to make a lapped seam and now know the difference between lapped seams and flat felted seams. It is not a hard pattern, or not as hard as I thought it might be, but it is time consuming. I have completed the tucks on the two front sides, the tucks on the back, the lace and tucks on the cuffs. I am ready to make the front lace button cover and start sewing everything together.

Tricky Areas

As you can see in this image, the collar looks like it must fasten on the side or back because there is not a seam or button showing in this image on the front. The pattern for the collar would actually fasten down the front without an alteration. The cuffs are made with lace according to the instructions, but the image looks like they are made with the blouse fabric with tucks and a little bit of lace or scroll work of some kind at the lower edge of the cuff.  The instructions and pattern pieces don't exactly match up with the illustration so it leaves questions as to whether to change the pattern to match the instructions or to change the instructions to match the illustration. It is one of those which came first kind of questions. Did someone draw up what they wanted to make then set out to make it or did they make it and someone else illustrated it with little regard to the actual garment?  Or I suppose a third possibility is that there were several options, like modern patterns with choices for collars, cuffs, trims etc.

Once I complete this blouse I will share more observations and how I opted to resolve these types of questions. Sewing with these older patterns really gives me an appreciation of how sewing is now compared to how it must have been in 1912.  Most things were probably sewn by hand, or on a treadle machine and probably not much sewing at night as lights would have been candles or lanterns in most places. Makes me really appreciate the electric power we take for granted.