1940's vibes meet sustainable fabrics

One thing I absolutely love about sourcing fabrics is coming across sustainable modern fabrics which have a vintage feel - I'm thinking ecovero and tencel to name a few. When I saw this tencel lawn with delicate flowers and foliage, reminiscent of some 40's and 50's florals, I knew I had to stock it. It's called Garden Paradise and is currently available in the shop.

I decided to sew the Bonnie blouse by Sew Over It. This is probably the only pattern I've ever bought when it was first released as I loved the vintage style so much. But then it's taken me 2 years to getting around to make it. This blouse has a hidden placket (so the buttons are not on show) and version 1 has a series of 3 pleats either side of the placket. I thought the fabric and pattern would work really well together as the fabric design was random enough that it wouldn't look odd with the pleats, and it has a vintage feel from the same era. 

. 

I made a few modifications to start. Firstly I rounded the collar to a peter pan shape as I wasn't keen on the original square collar. Secondly I did a 1.5cm sloped shoulder adjustment (which is a usual adjustment for me) and lastly, I decided to extend the blouse by 20cm. The original blouse has a waistband however I wanted a top that I could tuck into skirts/trousers so I decided to leave the waistband off and extend the bodice pieces by 20cm so it was long enough to tuck in. 

The trickiest part of construction was the front placket and pleats. Not because they are difficult but because you need to be accurate in order so that the finished garment looks neat. As the fabric is lightweight, it meant I had to concentrate extra hard to make sure those pleats were even! I'd say the instructions were good and at no point did I come unstuck - the only mistake I made was not folding the hidden placket to the front when I sewed the collar/bias binding on. Meaning that it wouldn't sit flat. But it was easy enough to unpick and resew that small section. After that it was fairly plain sailing.

Overall I'm delighted with the finished blouse - I'm planning on wearing it with my Simplicity 8242 skirt suit (a rereleased pattern from the 1940s) for a special occasion coming up soon. I'll pop a photo on Instagram of the final outfit!

Happy sewing 

Tanya xx