The Vintage Tyrolean Outfit Of My Dreams

So this is a really personal make for me. I've made a vintage inspired Tyrolean outfit which has been a year in the making, and I couldn’t be happier with it. Read on if you want to find out why. I'll talk first about the knitwear and then the blouse, so if you're only here for the sewing, scroll forwards until the blouse heading.

A bit of background... 

My mum is Italian, from the Süd Tirol which is the very north of the Italian alps. The village she grew up in is at the bottom of the Passo de Stelvio, and that whole area speaks German as their first language (as it used to be part of Austria until WW1). As a kid, I was brought up listening to her speaking German at home and alpine Tyrolean culture is second nature to me. We would visit Germany to see her brother (my Uncle), and at one point we even had satellite TV at home to get the Tyrolean channels. 

However, like many things in life, things fall by the wayside as you grow up and move on. I hadn’t been back to that area since I’ve become a mum myself. But in October last year, I visited Austria and Bavaria for a couple of days to attend my uncles funeral. The trip was a real point of reconnection for me and it was wonderful to re-immerse myself in the Tyrol for a few days. I came away richer for it. On my return, I decided to knit myself a Tyrolean-style jumper so that I could have a wearable piece to remind me of Süd Tirol and but that I could wear a lot. Tyrolean knitwear is characterised by a fitted silhouette, cables, and floral embroidery embellishment.

The knitwear...

After a lot of trawling the internet – and I mean A LOT – I bought the book Timeless Tyrolean Knitwear by Linda Ivell @knitting4victory. It looked exactly like what I was after - it hit the sweet spot of Tyrol and my love of vintage. All the patterns in the book were recreated from original Tyrolean knitwear patterns of the 30s & 40s. Some of the designs are incredibly intricate, others are much more straightforward. But they are all beautiful and a statement piece. The downside is that many of the patterns are one size only (34" bust), due to the fact that the original pattern was also one size. Linda gives tips on how to size up or down. I am a 36" bust and the waistcoat fits perfectly.

I settled on the Hollywood comes to Broadway waistcoat which I felt was a good first project and many many months later I’ve finally finished it. It was VERY enjoyable to knit and less enjoyable to embroider, but that’s just me. It’s knitted in 3 panels – the back and two fronts – which are sewn together to finish. I blocked the individual panels and embroidered it BEFORE sewing it together, to make the embroidery easier. The book does have a section on embroidery but the downside, or possibly upside, for the waistcoat was that there wasn’t any embroidery chart to go from, because the original pattern didn’t include one. So I loosely copied the pictures from the sample and slowly got into the rhythm. It’s many many years since I embroidered anything so I used my limited knowledge but it came together. I cannot tell you how much the embroidery brings the cardigan to life. You could easily make it without the embellishment but it would entirely lose its character.

But what good is a waistcoat if you don’t have an outfit to go with it!?

The blouse...

I was really taken with the original inspiration image from the Timeless Tyrolean Knitwear book which shows actress Evelyn Keyes in the 1940s. I just LOVE this look. So I decided to recreate it as closely as possible.

Funnily enough, I knew EXACTLY the pattern to use as I’ve been eyeing it up for the last 3 years. The Smooth Sailing blouse and trousers by Wearing History could not have been a closer match. (Well, if you ignore the sleeve length!) I have wanted to make the blouse for years and this gave me the perfect excuse. The style is fitted at the waist with darts, and then it can be made either with the buttons extending up to the collar (as I have done) or the buttons finishing lower down the shirt, mid-cleavage, so you can fold back the lapel and have more of a camp-style collar. The construction is a little unique in that the front of shirt, and yoke are folded back on themselves to effectively self-face the shirt. I cut a straight size 18 based on my measurements and made no mods. And I'm very happy with the finished fit.

I was a little undecided on the fabric choice. I knew I wanted something which would fit with my waistcoat style and colours so when I saw the Tyrolean double gauze at a suppliers I ordered it. Purely for me to make this blouse…. the perks of owning a fabric shop! It’s got the linear florals, which make up a lot of Tyrolean textiles and the colours are spot on.

Now. I have a confession whilst I’m happy with the fabric choice, and happy with the pattern choice. Bloody hell I did NOT enjoy making that shirt! Firstly the instructions… where to begin! It was confusing as anything. The instructions are basic – they assume you know what you’re doing. And in my case, I did not! They are mainly numbered text instructions, with an occasional drawing. But the detail is scant and often not very clear so you’re left working out how to finish things off. For example, adding the bias binding to the neckline neither the drawing nor instructions show what happens to the front/neckline facing. I got there in the end and just did my own thing but a sentence to say what happens to the facing wouldn’t go amiss. Also, the pattern markings aren’t labelled clearly, so for example there will be a line of 6 dots and you’ll need to work out which dot you need to correspond to your size. Not overly straightforward  when you've already cut out the pattern and can't tell which size if which. It's easily fixable, with a tiny bit of effort. 

The next reason I didn’t enjoy making this blouse is the double gauze. It’s my first time using double gauze and I’ve got a great number of learnings… the first one is NEVER try to sew accurately with double gauze. It’s like plaiting fog. Perhaps it is because I’m so used to a crisp cotton that using a loose weave cotton really threw me. I obviously DID sew it accurately but it took an awful lot of patience to get there. However the moment I put this blouse on I realised why people love double gauze so much. It is soooooooo comfortable. It’s like wearing a cloud. You can barely feel it against your skin and it holds it shape really really well so that puff sleeve is STILL puffy at the end of the day, even after wearing a coat over the top. It’s magic. So my other learning is that double gauze can be forgiven, just as long as you can get past the sewing! I added some vintage red buttons from my stash to finish off the look and I’m chuffed to bits.

So here I am in my finished outfit and feeling all types of Tyrolean fabulous. I will definitely tackle double gauze again. And I will definitely make the Smooth Sailing blouse again… but just not the two in the same project!!

Happy sewing 

Tanya xx