Dark Florals

About a month ago, I found this vintage pattern at an estate sale.  I don't often find myself drawn to 1970s designs, but for whatever reason, I liked this one, and it followed me home.

When I opened up the envelope, I discovered that something had attacked the sleeve tissue.  I did my best to carefully iron things flat, and traced the destroyed piece onto a piece of Pellon.

But it wasn't the sleeve that I was most excited about.  What made me take a second look at this pattern was the yoke.  Generally, I prefer v-necks and angular lines so I don't look any more rounded, but I thought this might look really nice tucked into a full skirt.

Of course, the pattern also comes with a belt.  This may not be the way I choose to wear the blouse, but since I had enough of this cotton fabric, I decided that having more options is always nice, and cut out the belt.

Gathers are definitely not my favorite part of the sewing process, but I was hoping that the added aggravation would be worth it in the end.

And I wanted to see how that yoke was going to work for me.

Because the neckline is fairly fitted, this blouse has a zipper at center back.

I contemplated using a pick stitch for the zipper, however, as there was going to be a bit of topstitching along the yoke if I followed the pattern instructions, so I decided that it might look slightly odd not to use a machine stitch for the zipper insertion.

And with some hand basting to keep everything in place, it went well.

After a bit of trimming and clipping, the neckline facing was ready to stitch into place.

I did hand stitch that facing into place, even with the top-stitching - it just works better - and the instructions agree!

Along with gathering, I often avoid projects that require elastic.  But these sudo-bishop sleeves seemed worth a small amount of elastic.

The directions call for use of a purchased bias tape, but I prefer to make my own.  And it will always be a perfect match!

Stitching the two ends of elastic together in such a small circumference was a real pain, but in the end, I wrangled those silly stretchy bits.

And raw edges were finished with seam binding, of course.

I also decided to hand stitch the hem in place, even with the top-stitched details; I just prefer the soft finish that it gives.

The finished blouse is a bit shapeless through the body, but the tie cinches things in nicely, as will a skirt waistband.

I rather like the way this blouse turned out.

So exploring this particular 1970s pattern was well worth it (shredded pattern tissue, and all!).