The Great Vintage Shirt Project - Simplicity 2194

Construction, Part One

So far, the construction has been pretty straight forward, as many of these vintage shirts have similar features:  multiple dart shaping, collars and facings, and sleeves with or without cuffs.  The variables have been size, placement and type of darts and the general collar shape.  This particular pattern has released tucks and bust darts, plus an additional pairs of darts to shape the back and front necks.  (BTW, if you sew a lot of vintage patterns, you'll get really good at sewing darts of all kinds!)  You can see the three front darts much better in the photo below as once again, my choice of print obscures some of these details:

The back neck has two very small darts to shape it.  On the pattern, there is only a line drawn. 

To make the dart, you are to fold the fabric on the line, then stitch 1/8" from the fold at the edge and tapering to nothing at the dot.  It will look like this when completed:

This blouse has a shawl collar with a split back neck.  I actually like jackets and blouses with shawl collars, even though the construction can be tricky when you're trying it out for the first time.  I'd never done one with a split at the center back.  The center back collar seam is sewn partially, and the facing is also sewn the same way.  When sewn together, each side is sewn separately, completing the collar:

So far, so good:

I still need sleeves and finishing, but this is a good start!   Maybe by the end of the week this one will be done.  If the sun shines tomorrow, I'll also be making more screens for FGTDD!

Parting Shot:  Very Silly.  My son has a small collection of silly bands.  For right now, these are the trend (do understand that in northern New England, we're always quite a bit *behind* the trends) amongst the elementary students.