During the week of Independence Day, I had the week off from teaching. What better way to celebrate than to get to sewing. I had just found a beautiful 1930’s style floral quilting cotton that coordinated with a blue and white fabric I’de been saving for a blouse. My plan was to re-make the Wearing History Smooth Sailing Blouse with a coordinating from the floral fabric.

Here you can see me in my finished blouse and Skirt. I feel patriotic with out being glaringly patriotic :-) and ready for some serious 4th of July celebration!

For the skirt, I decided to use the Colette Parfait Dress and add a waistband at the top edge. I already knew that I loved the style and fit, so it was a no brainer.

For the blouse, I wanted to use the main part of the Wearing History Smooth Sailing Sport Togs pattern, but adjust the armhole and change the sleeve. I made this blouse before and found that the armscye was too narrow and was cutting into my arm a bit. It wasn’t a major fit issue, but I decided to correct it for this new blouse. I actually wear the original blouse all the time and you can read the post I wrote for that here:

http://www.thesewingroomalameda.com/blog/2017/10/26/smooth-sailing-sports-togs-a-pattern-review

For the underarm on the blouse, I scooped out the curve about 3/8”, blending to 0” at the both the underarm and yoke seams.

For the Shoulder I made the shoulder width about 1/4” smaller at the shoulder seam and blending to 0” at both yoke seams. I thought the shoulders were just slightly too wide (after my initial adjustment) so I narrowed them a bit. In retrospect, this was a good idea for the puff (at the shoulder) original sleeve, because it would make the armscye bigger and the gathers less pronounced. But for the sleeve I actually put into this garment, which had no gathers in the sleeve cap, it made the shoulder feel just slightly too narrow. I still love it and this is really just knit picking at this point because, overall, the blouse fit very nicely, after all the adjustments.

The patterns I used for the blouse were as follows:

Base pattern - Wearing History E-Pattern- Smooth Sailing 1930s Sport Togs- Blouse & Trousers Pattern

Sleeve pattern - I used the short puff sleeve from - Vintage Pattern Lending Library - 1933 Ladies Day Dress With Puff Sleeve Option - Reproduction Sewing Pattern #T7357 - 34 Inch Bust

You can see the blouse I made using that VPLL pattern here:

http://www.thesewingroomalameda.com/blog/2017/12/5/december-red-a-red-wool-1930s-ensemble

Lastly, I just finished this beautiful green sweater. Not to give myself kudos, but actually, all I really did was finished it. My dear friend Pauletta passed away a few years ago and her family gifted me with a car load of fabric, yarn and some unfinished projects. This one was complete, but missing a neck ribbing. There was no spare yarn, so I had to find something similar. I found an almost match in color and weight. It’s just slightly darker. I knitted on a ribbing at the neck with buttonholes and also knitted pockets. The buttons are vintage and both buttons and extra yarn came from The Recrafting Company as well as the fabric for the skirt.

There is one more ensemble I made that week, but I’ll save that for another post. Until next time,

Happy Sewing!

xo Jennifer