1960s Repro Work Blouse

So another addition to the "things I've made but haven't gotten around to posting yet." This piece also stems forth from my recent binge shopping trip for vintage patterns. The pattern I used for this project was Simplicity's Jiffy 1364, a reproduction from the 1960s.

Simplicity Jiffy 1364

I opted for View B, since I wanted something comfortable for summer. For the fabric, I opted for black and white polka dot charmeuse purchased from Denver Fabrics, since I wanted to be able to wear it work with one of my retro skirts. I reviewed the pattern and it was fairly simple in terms of execution. The real challenge came in the material I selected. I have never worked with charmeuse before, but figured this was a good pattern to test it out on since it would be easy to put together.

It definitely proved to be a little tricky since the material is very slippery and silky. I've worked with dupioni and shantung silks before, but those are a little stiffer. Perhaps the hardest part was sewing two bust darts along the bias of the material. It took a lot of pins to make sure nothing moved while I put the darts in.

Aside from the two darts, every thing else went together remarkably easy, including the back zipper, neck facing, and bias edging for around the arms. I don't have any in progress photos really since the blouse only took a couple days to put together.

The final test was to wear it into work. Loved it with my skirt and I paired it with a wide belt to mimic the look on the pattern cover.

Impromptu work photo

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Pattern: reproduction Jiffy 1364, view B

Fabric: 100% poly charmeuse

Notions: Matching zipper, hook and eye, cotton/poly bias tape, lightweight interfacing