When I posted the Rodeo & Wrangle & Ramble in Style outfit last week, I promised to post instructions on my ‘hack’ of Steph’s Blank Canvas Tee pattern.

The ‘Rodeo & Wrangle’ Tee

This is Part II – construction.  Go here for information on drafting the pattern.

Please note that knits are not my forte (I’m a historical seamstress after all), so this is not necessarily the correct or best way to sew this – it’s just what I did, and it worked.  (though writing this tutorial I realise how much I do know, and how much is coming back from sewing knit dance gear for a costume shop 10 years ago).

Unless otherwise stated, use a lightning stitch and a 1/2″ seam allowance.

Step 1: Stabilizing the shoulder seams

Cut a strip of interfacing 1.5cm wide and as long as your shoulder seam.  Interface your shoulder seam to stablise it and keep it from wrinkling and warping.  DO NOT interface past the turn of the shoulder seam, as this will affect the hang of your sleeve.

Interfacing to stabilize the shoulder seam

 Step 2: Finishing the back neckline

Cut a strip 3cm wide and just shorter than the back neckline.  Right sides together, using a 1/2″ seam allowance and stretching slightly as you sew it, sew this to the back neckline.  Turn and press it over, turning the raw end under to cover it, and sew it down with a double needle.

The interior back neckline finish

The exterior back neckline finish

Step 3: Stabilizing the front yoke

You’ll need to interface your front yoke to stabilize it.  It’s really important to use a woven or knit interfacing to stabilize knits – not a non-woven interfacing.  The interfacing I used is a little too heavy for my fabric (I didn’t realise I was out of my light stuff, and didn’t want to make a trip to the shop), so it’s making the yoke curl a little.

My front yoke

Once the front yoke is stabilized, you can finish the round outside edge in any manner you wish (it will be fine if you leave it unfinished too).

Step 4: Sewing the front yoke

With right sides together, place the front yoke over the front of the T.  Using a lightening stitch and the absolute minimal seam allowance (this will vary depending on your fabric, but I managed just over 1/8″), and starting exactly at the centre point of the keyhole cutout, sew up to the shoulder.  Do not backstitch when you start, and make sure you leave enough thread to pull the thread through to one side and tie it off.  Backstitching will create extra bulk and make it hard to turn the keyhole perfectly.  Stitch the other side in the same way.  Stitching symmetrically will keep the keyhole symmetrical.

With the yoke sew, turn and press it.  You may need to clip into the corners.  Topstitch through the yoke & seam allowances on only the lower portions of the keyhole cut out to keep it neatly held back.

The turned and pressed yoke

Step 5: The shoulder seams

Without sewing through the yoke, carefully match the finished back neck edges to the seam at the turn of the yoke, and sew the back piece to the front piece at the shoulder/sleeve seam.  Press the seam back, fold the yoke edge over it, and topstitch right along the shoulder seam using a double needle to hole the yoke down on the inside.

The finished back neck edge meeting the front piece, and the double-stitching holding down the yoke

The stitched down yoke at the shoulder seam

The sewn sleeve/shoulder seam

Step 6: Your side seams.

Sew your side seams from underarm to hem.  Try on your shirt, and make any adjustments in sizing.  I ended up using a french curve to create a curved size seam to eliminate bulk at my waist.

The sleeves and side shaping

Step 7: hemming

Hem the shirt.  I used a double-turn and a double needle.

The hemmed and almost-done shirt

Step 8:  The keyhole loops.

Using a buttonhole stitch, hand-work loops at the widest points of your keyhole neckline to slip a ribbon through to hold it closed.  The shirt can also be worn with the flaps open as a faux-collar.

The little loops on the keyhole cutout

Ta da!  It’s done!  Feel free to make your own, adapt, improve.

The ‘Rodeo & Wrangle’ tee

When I posted the Rodeo & Wrangle & Ramble in Style outfit last week, I promised to post instructions on my ‘hack’ of Steph’s Blank Canvas Tee pattern.

The ‘Rodeo & Wrangle’ blouse

This is Part I – drafting the pattern. Part II will be how I sewed it.

Please note that knits are not my forte (I’m a historical seamstress after all), so the sewing in particular  is not necessarily the correct or best way to do this – it’s just what I did, and it worked.

This tutorial will be improving slightly in the future – tutorials need to be written, then photographed, then re-written, then re-photographed to make sure it all syncs up, and I still need to re-photograph.

I used a size 35″ bust Blank Canvas tee for myself, so all of these steps are based on that.

My inspiration for the hack was Marian Martin 9254.  I wanted to create the look of a 1940s blouse with the ease of knitwear.  I particularly liked the flutter sleeves and diamond cutout neckline.

Marian Martin 9254

Step 1: Raising the neck back.

Raising the neck back 1″ at the shoulder seam

The look I was going for called for a higher, tighter neck, to echo the high, tight vintage neck on Marian Martin 9254.  First I raised the neck back by measuring 1″ up from the shoulder seam, and 3/4″ up from the CB neck, and drawing a curved neckline to connect those points.

Raising the neck back 3/4″ at the CB point

Step 2: Raising the neck front

Raising the neck front by adding 1″ up on the shoulder seam

Now you need to raise the neck front to match the neck back.  Draw up 1″ from the top of the front shoulder seam.  Now mark a point 1″ up from the CF  neckline point given in the Blank Canvas pattern, and connect these two points with a curved line that is parallel to the original neckline, but 1″ higher, all the way along.

Step 3: Creating your keyhole

This is the tricky bit that I did mainly by just drawing what looked right (you can see all my trial sketching lines on the pattern).

Measuring down from the shoulder to mark the widest point & lowest point of your keyhole

First, hold a tape measure to your chest, with the top point centred at the top of the hollow of your neck.  Look at yourself in a mirror, and figure out where you want the bottom of your keyhole to lie.  On me, this was 4 3/4″ down.

Mark the length you have measured on the CF of the pattern, with the top point being the top of the neckline (so I measured 4 3/4″ down from the neckline).

Measuring down from the point of the neckline to where I want the keyhole to end

The widest point of your keyhole will be just over halfway down the length from the top of the neckline to the bottom of the keyhole.  I marked it at 2 1/2″ from the top of the neckline.

Measuring the widest point of the keyhole

My keyhole is 1 3/4″ wide.  If you are using a smaller size, you may want a very slightly smaller keyhole, for a bigger size a very slightly bigger keyhole.

For the bottom of your keyhole, draw a straight line from the point you marked at the bottom of your keyhole to the point you marked for the widest part of your keyhole.  This like MUST be straight – not curved like the line in my inspiration top.  If it is curved it will curl and warp in a knit.

The straight line at the bottom of the keyhole

Now here is the tricky part. Draw a curve from the widest point of your keyhole to the centre front of the neck.  I just did this entirely by eye.  You’ll be cutting off a tiny bit of the centre top of the neck.  The important thing is that the widest point of your curve touches right on to the CF line – if it doesn’t you’ll loose too much in the sewing, and your neck points will be too far apart.

Step 4 – the facing

You’ll need to create a facing to finish off the keyhole cut-out.  This is really easy.  Draw a line straight down from the shoulder seam, 2″ from the neckline point, and parallel to the CF line, extending as far as the widest point of the keyhole.  Then, mark a point 1.5″ from the bottom of your keyhole, and draw a gentle curve up from this point, meeting the line you drew down from the shoulder.  This will be the shape of your facing.

Drawing a line down from the shoulder, and a curve around the keyhole

Now, place a piece of paper over your Front pattern piece, and trace the neckline and cutout of your keyhole through the paper to create a pattern for your facing.

The facing pattern piece

Step 5 - the sleeves

The ‘Rodeo & Wrangle’ blouse – sleeves

This part of my re-drafting is based almost entirely on Steph’s Flutterby tutorial, so you may prefer to use her version.

First, tape a piece of paper above the top of the pattern to give you

Extra piece of paper for the sleeves

Then lay a straight edge along the shoulder line, and draw this line out from the shoulder point, past the end of the sleeve.

Drawing the line out from the shoulder seam

Now, measure from the line of the sleeve up to the line you just drew.  For me, this is 1.5″, but it will differ slightly for different sizes.

Measuring the point between the shoulder seam and the new line

Use this measurement to mark a series of 3 further points up from the shoulder seam, each the same as the first measure.

Three further points marked up from the first line

Draw lines from the shoulder point up to each of these points, creating a series of angled lines – a sunburst extending from the shoulder.  The more points and lines you have, the fuller your sleeve will be.  My sleeve is 4 points.

A sunburst of lines from the shoulder point

With your sunburst created, tape another piece of paper out from the side of the sleeve.

Second piece of paper taped to the side of the sleeves

Mark another series of points down the sleeve, each the same measure as the measurement between your rays.

Measuring points down the side of the sleeve

Now, mark a point 1″ up from the very bottom of the sleeve.  This will be where you start the curve of the flutter sleeve.  You don’t want to start it lower, because that would create a bulky underarm.

Measuring up 1″ from the bottom of the sleeve

Now, measure from the shoulder point to the point you just marked 1″ from the bottom of the sleeve.  For me, this was 9.5″

Measuring from the shoulder point to the 1″ from the bottom point

Now, using your shoulder point as the starter point, measure along each line/point of your rays and mark a dot the same length as the line from the shoulder point to the 1″ from the bottom point (9.5 for me).

Marking the points 9.5″ from the shoulder point

When all the points are marked, they will form an arc.  Join the dots together, and this will be the curve of your sleeve hem.

The arc of dots 9.5″ from the shoulder point

Connecting the dots to form the curve of your sleeve

Now you can cut it out, and you have your sleeve pattern!  Do the exact same thing for the front pattern piece, and you’ll have all the bits you need to cut out for your very own 1940s inspired Blank Canvas hack.

The cut-out sleeve piece

Tomorrow I’ll tell you how I sewed up my shirt.

In celebration of over 700 followers on facebook*, it’s time for a giveaway!

So what’s up for grabs?  All the accessories you need to be the perfect little quirky-vintage hostess.

There is an adorable vintage apron with cute little front pockets:

Two sweet vintage handkerchiefs and a sparkly stick-pin brooch:

Want to see how sparkly the brooch is?  Soooo sparkly!

If things get too warm in the kitchen, every perfect vintage hostess needs a fan:

Not so hot on cooking?  I’ll send you either a bag of NZ licorice (soooo yummy!), or if you aren’t a licorice person, a block of Whittakers chocolate (I’ll even give you a choice of flavours).

And, of course you need a tablecloth to put your goodies on.  This one is rayon and has Australian Flowers, and is super sweet.

And finally, when you are all tired out from hosting people and looking beautiful, maybe you’d like to curl up with a good book.  Or at least one I can just about guarantee you’ve never read: the Belle of St Clemens is a collection of those hilarious early 20th-century girls at boarding school stories.  It’s not remotely literature, and totally not-PC by modern standards but it’s fun, and pretty.

The only thing you don’t get is Felicity.  She’s staying with me:

Right!  So to win all this deliciousness leave a comment telling me:

1) What the theme of the party you would hold to show off these things would be, and;

2) If you would like licorice or chocolate, and if you want chocolate, would you like milk, dark, mac-nut, fruit & nut, kiwifruit, or hokey-pokey.

For extra chances to win, blog, twitter, facebook or pinterest the giveaway, and come back and leave a link under your comment.  You’ll get one extra chance per source.

The giveaway closes a week from today –  next week Thursday at 12 noon NZ time (so that’s Wed in the rest of the world).  I’ll pick the winner via a random number generator.  Good luck!

*And when I get to 800 followers on Facebook I’ll do a sewing giveaway, with vintage patterns and fabric and notions