Simplicity 4817: the 99 Barrage Balloons blouse
Blouses with bows! I’d been pining for one ever since seeing Charlotte Gray, in which Cate Blanchett is parachuted into occupied France to do, uh, not much really while dressed in various achingly well-tailored 1940s outfits, including a killer tie-collar blouse. However, lots of vintage pattern buyers out there seem to share my wish, so it’s been difficult to track one down. I finally bagged this 1943 Simplicity pattern from the outstanding ZipZapKap. View 1 has set-in, blousy sleeves. The waist is shaped with dart tucks front and back.
Sometimes it’s enough for me just to look at a pattern or fabric to conceive a clear vision in my mind of what I want the finished product to look like. This, I think, is the first time I’ve ever managed to realize that vision completely. I wanted a pale blue blouse with red accents… and I got it!
I’ve been taken with the color scheme of sky blue and bright red ever since I inherited this Threadless shirt. The design is called “99 Luftballons“, so I decided to name my wartime take on it the 99 Barrage Balloons blouse.
Don't ask tall people to take your photo or you will end up weirdly foreshortened.
I made up the blouse in blue cotton sateen I bought ages ago from MacCulloch & Wallis and added red topstitching and red buttons from the Cloth House, Berwick Street. The buttons are my favorite. They’re bright, shiny and cheerful — as vintage dressmaking manuals would put it, gay.
I made a few minor modifications to the bodice pattern — I raised the side darts a little and increased the bust measurement by an inch or so — but my biggest breakthrough was in the sleeves. Readers, I am proud to report that this is the first set-in-sleeved garment I’ve ever sewn without tears 0r swearing!
How did I do it? First, I reduced the amount of ease in the sleeve cap, because I’d read from various authorities that most home sewing patterns include too much, especially for a fabric like cotton that doesn’t ease well. I measured the length of the armhole against the length of the armscye, as detailed in Adele Margolis’s invaluable book Make Your Own Dress Patterns. Sure enough, the original pattern allowed more than 2″ of ease, so I reduced the amount to about 1″ by redrawing the sleeve cap to look more like my personal sleeve block. After that, the sleeve went in pretty painlessly.
I also modified the lower (wrist) edge of the sleeve to “hang more attractively”, as recommended in Claire Shaeffer’s Couture Sewing Techniques. This just involved redrawing the curve. I can’t say I notice a massive difference, but I’m telling myself it looks better than it otherwise would.
I eliminated final hair-tearing by getting DM Buttons in Soho to put in all the buttonholes. It took £3 and 5 minutes, and I walked out with perfect buttonholes on blouse front and cuffs.
On one of my sick days, I also partially repaired the shoddy-ass job I did on the sabotage skirt. I raised the hemline 1.5″ and re-stitched. I find it weird that despite how minutely dictated hemlines used to be — the boy in Pattern for Smartness mentions reading about them in the paper — it’s nigh on impossible to find out what the actual hemline was in any given year. Thanks to this National Archives podcast, I discovered that austerity regulations set hemlines at 19″ from the ground, which at least gave me a ballpark figure. The skirt does look more period now, and I’m pleased with how the outfit as a whole went together.
I give this photo an A for effort but D for deportment. I stand like a farmhand — unsurprising for someone who’s been wearing jeans all her life. Just another one of those casualties of feminism they warned the world about, I guess.
Never fear, though — I’ve been spending a lot more time these days thinking about my hair than plotting the overthrow of the patriarchy. Here’s what my vintage haircut looks like when I style it at home. A bit more wearable than what the salon gave me, but 1940s-influenced nonetheless:
This style was set dry on hot sticks and the front styled with a bit of teasing and a short sharp shock of TreSemme Freeze Hold. That stuff is amazing.
I am very pleased with the blouse, despite the fact that it’s agony to iron (all those tucks! ruffles! gathers!). It’s probably no coincidence that the first garment I’ve sewn in ages without being emotionally overinvested is also the only one that hasn’t gone horribly awry.
Lessons Learned:
- Study the design details and choose your fabric accordingly. The sateen is nice but just a bit too crisp for the blousy sleeves and tie bow. Something limper would have draped better.
- Use fusible interfacing with caution. I fused the cuffs and center fronts and wish I’d used sew-in — the interfacing has given the fabric a slightly bubbled texture. Also, I couldn’t find any resources to tell me which side of a doubled piece like a collar or cuff to fuse and had to learn the hard way. Fuse the half that faces inside, kids!
- On cuffs, like shirt fronts, there is a right way and wrong way to place buttons. Men’s and women’s shirts button up the front on opposite sides, but everyone’s cuffs button the same way to make it easier to do them up. Try sewing them the opposite way and you’ll see what I mean. Whoops!
- Relax, for pete’s sake.
Wonderful! Great job on this blouse. I love the color combination.and thank you for the tips. I always love seeing your work!
Love it! You look straight outta the pictures, dahling!
The pinked edge on the ruffle is a GREAT detail, so much easier than doing a fiddly rolled hem and it adds some texture there, too. And I totally agree on reducing sleeve cap height – you wouldn’t believe the height on some of them, like the dress I traced out last night. It’s a knit! You don’t need ANY ease! Aaaagh!
Bravo! Not only do I really love the smart color combination, but all your detailed modifications.
The tip for reducing the sleeve cap is a good reminder; I often forget until I’ve cut out and started to sew my pattern. Maybe I should hang a sign over my sewing area to keep it in the forefront of my mind–after all, it reduces so much frustration! 
lol.
You should be very proud of yourself with this blouse! It is feminine and frilly without being frothy. Gosh, you make me want to go back to making my own clothes again.
That blouse is beautiful, the red buttons are just perfect! You look quite lovely in the outfit, it all fits together perfectly (especially the shoes, which I am agonizing over the cuteness of).
Thank you for the tips, too, I shall keep them in mind for future projects as I grow more serious about sewing.
Love it, just every single detail of it!
I’ve definitely been one of the ones out there vying for those tie-neck blouse patterns! I finally caved and bought one from an infamously overpriced ebay store to get exactly what I wanted. Can’t wait to see how it comes together. I have several different variations in mind, so will be totally worth it if it works out half as well as I think.
What a great post too, great writing, great eye candy 40s fashion, learned about 5 things that will help my projects, laughed out loud, Han Solo, I mean it’s just all there. Your blog has really become top of list reading for me lately!
Thanks so much! I think it’s only fair that others should learn from my mistakes. If I can save even one seamstress from weeping into a set-in sleeve, I will consider my efforts well rewarded.
It’s gorgeous! And yes, great colour combo (see also Penny Cruz in Volver).
LOVE, love, love the blouse!!! It looks stunning! And the hair is great (I think I cut mine too short….at least it grows fast!). I love the color combo….and I’m sure you will get a lot of use out of the blouse.
BTW, I’m emailing you with some photos of 1940′s patterns for our swap. Let me know if any of them look interesting
LOVE the look, and IIR correctly I’ve seen one of the period Stars posed like that. I think you’re in good company. LOL
Regarding the sleeve cap, I used to sorta like the extra height and width the extra inch added to the sleeve/shoulder in my blouses, since I’m narrow in that area, but you have to be happy with tiny gathers in that case. You’re right, for a shirt fit you almost have to cut it down a bit.
and I think you’re hair is VERY lovely. I’m jealous. teehee. Kitty
I’ve been looking forward to seeing this since you bought it. Gorgeous! I am fully intending to steal your pale blue and red colour combo, then claim you copied me…
I’ve been off the radar of late and we have much to catch up on. Expect a lengthy and nonsensical email soon.
Hurray!
Gorgeous! Are the ruffle edges raw?
I thought I’d be clever/lazy and pink them. They do ravel a bit in the wash, but I figure I’ll just say it’s Anthropologie-inspired.
Beautiful, can you make me one?
Unfortunately, I owe several friends big time for catsitting, so I’m paying them back in sewing. My cats are elderly, ailing and lavishly incontinent and I was gone for a week. I will be free to take commissions probably some time in 2012.
Thanks for the tip about the easing on the sleeves – I had suspected as much in doing battle with a shirt dress that has been an on-again off-again affair for me for the last eighteen months or so (slow and steady so they say!). I like the blouse and can see it in a liberty print with capped sleeves for summer as well – I would wear the skirt year round until it fell apart and then some.
Beautiful – I adore the red buttons with the blue! I think you look very period with the skirt. I’ll have to try that tip about the sleeve caps – I have the hardest time easing them in, and I always wonder if I should reduce the ease!
It’s lovely! Blue+red is such a nice combo.
You might want to try just steaming and shaping the ruffles — that’s what I do on my daughter’s super-ruffly clothes (like this dress). I give the ruffle a good blast of steam, then pull it into shape. It works well for me, at least on 100% cottons!
Lovely blouse! <3
My only experience with sleeves so far (cap sleeves at that) was a HUGE fail so they quite frighten me; good to know about the easing issue for future reference.