My take on Gertie’s 40s style blouse

I’ve been looking for some time for the perfect pattern to make a 40’s style blouse. I secretly (and not so secretly) admired Liz and Tasha‘s blouses and I wanted to make something like this. Last year, for the Fall for Cotton, I modified a pattern, and after lots of sweating and swearing I got a blouse that I more or less liked it, but that sadly got very little wear. I think the reason is that it’s too short, the collar is a bit too small, and the hem is a bit too flared. Anyway, I wanted to have more of this kind of blouses, but it’s very difficult to get vintage patterns in Spain and the shipping from the US makes it quite pricey. But then Gertie released her new book and I decided that I needed to try her blouse pattern.

Lately I’m having a nightmare of work. Some people are on vacation, others ill, and work is piling up like crazy. This is why I’m not sewing as much as I’d like. When I finish by working day I’m so exhausted that the only thing I can do is sitting in the couch and knitting some stitches while staring at the void or watching a scify b-movie from the 50s. So with this blouse I committed the sin of sewing it without making a muslin. I measured the pattern pieces and it seemed to be fine, and a blouse is more forgiving than a dress or a pair of pants. The result is good enough, and you can see Gerry here posing like he was a vintage brooch.

One of the things that I wanted to accomplish with sewing (and knitting) is making my own style clothes. I hate clothes shopping, and mostly is because I just don’t like what I see. I dislike the style and it also makes me feel that we all should wear the same clothes and walk out of very loud stores like robots wearing the same clothes. And somethings are just plainly not flattering, but it’s like people are blind (or brainwashed). I hate consumerism, and having to buy new clothes because the ones at the shop are low quality and their style changes from season to season, and apparently wearing the pants from last year is a mortal sin. I never fitted in the box. I tend to wear jeans/pants almost everyday, paired with tshirts. Many of my tshirts are on dark colors, often with skulls, rock’n’roll messages and similar things. Sometimes I feel that tshirts is the only thing I’m wearing and it would be nice to dress up a little bit without necessarily wearing dresses (I get cold easily and as I’ve said, my going outs are mainly to the grocery store). I think a nice blouse comes in handy here, and this one is as comfortable as a tshirt.

With sewing, unlike with knitting, I feel things happen faster, projects get finished in less days and we have constantly new patterns tempting us almost everyday. I think, finally after two years of sewing, I’m finally focusing more on what I really want to sew, on my own style.

This shirt will look a bit nicer paired with a garment sitting on the natural waist, unlike this pair of RTW jeans. Anyway, it’s not really formal and it looks quite good like this too. Many of my tshirts have a similar length. The only mod was skipping the pocket. The print is crazy enough so this was a bit unnecessary to me.

I think Gerry doesn’t like my lipstick. He also bit my nails when I used to paint them red. I rarely wear lipstick lately, sadly just when I’m taking pictures for the blog. As I’ve said, we barely go out, and I try to avoid makeup to no stir my already hyperactive mast cells.

As you can see, I placed snaps here too. This take on the 40s blouse is quite personal and not really vintage so I took the liberty of installing snaps, which took less than 10 minutes and was done just before going to bed. I don’t want to imagine what could have happened if I decided to have regular buttons and buttonholes.

Like with my Nemesis blouse, the back is a bit baggy, but I guess this is what you get when using tucks to shape your blouse. I really like this print, and it also matches my current style. I’m not good with words, especially when in big groups or with people I don’t know, and I’m getting worse due to lack of training. I like that sewing lets me make what I want and let my clothes speak for me.

I really like how this blouse came out and I have already planned many more. I just need to finish a present for my niece Paula and have more time for selfish sewing.

BTW, I changed location to take pictures because on the previous one there were some patches of sunlight. Seeing these pictures, I also like this one, and you can see where I work on my sewing. What do you think?