The Art of Blouse Making.
The Blouse is fastened with eyelet holes and ribbon velvet.
With an up-to-date pattern and good material, the making of one’s own blouses is but a delightful pastime, as well as a very profitable one. The material for the blouse shown here cost very little, just a few shillings would, in fact, pay for the paper pattern, two yards of the material, a dozen little bone rings and two yards of narrow velvet ribbon for the lacings, but the cost of a similar blouse ready-made would be at least four times as much.
The various pieces were all cut out by a paper pattern, which was pinned on the material, and on which there was an allowance of a quarter inch margin. The collar, cuffs, and yoke were cut double. The last three items had their edges all turned inwards, to the depth of the margin allowed, then both pieces of each were tacked together with their edges perfectly even.
The little turned back cuff had the two pieces stitched together on the wrong side on the outer edge and sides, then turned inside out and the edges tacked flat. The inside edge was tacked in between the two pieces of the large cuff and secured with a row of stitching.
The sleeves were joined with a French seam, then both ends were turned into a narrow hem, which was tacked carefully. The edge at the lower end was gathered to fit the cuff with top stitch set evenly, and for this the same kind of thread as used in the faggoting was employed.
The fronts had the edges cased with a piece of the material for a depth of two inches. The back was joined to the fronts in the underarm seam by a French seam as in the sleeve, then the entire top portion of back and front and the armholes were turned into a narrow hem, and tacked securely, the front edges gathered as in the sleeve, to fit the yoke.
Narrow strips of stiff paper were tacked underneath the lines where the different parts were to be joined, and then the faggoting was commenced by beginning at the right front edge, as shown on this page.