The Scroop Patterns Selina Blouse is based on an extant 1910s blouse in my collection.
It’s a fantastic garment for a number of reasons.
It’s a cool, quirky design that absolutely epitomises mid-19101s fashion. It’s homemade, so represents the type of thing that a home seamstress would have made. And finally, it has notches on the interior seams, strongly indicating that it was made from a commercial sewing pattern.
Let’s take a closer look at it!
It’s made from a midweight cotton with a jacquard-woven pattern of scrolling vines.
The collar and peplum are faced in mull, a light, open-weave cotton similar to modern book-muslin.
It’s primarily machine sewn, with hand finishing on the collar binding. The stitch balance suggests it was sewn on a vibrating shuttle machine.
The front is faced with a strip of straight-grain fabric, folded to form a tuck at the angle of the front V.
All the interior seams were left unfinished:
The blouse was unfinished and when I bought it, as it had no buttons or other means of fastening.
I added hooks and snaps to fasten the front (as the most sympathetic form of fastening that wouldn’t permanently alter the blouse). The buttons on the Selina pattern are based on similar blouses seen in sewing patterns.
I wore the blouse once, very carefully, to give a talk on behalf of the Katherine Mansfield House Museum.
The original:
The pattern:
i do love blouses of this period, and it’s nice to see the details of construction on this example. really, i think they are very flattering and versatile for wearing today, just as much as for historical attire.
Kind of mind-blowing, a blouse that’s over a hundred years old! My (by no means new) house isn’t that old! Even garments we have that were handed down from our grandparents aren’t that old. Amazing!
What’s really amazing is that it’s 100 years old and totally robust and wearable! It’s quite a reminder how young NZ is that 100 years is old.
Absolutely amazing!
*busily taking notes*
I cannot thank you enough for sharing this. There are several very handy bits in the construction, and how wonderful that a historical garment fits you so nicely!
It looks like such a labour of love to have created a pattern based on it.
really interesting post. I can’t get over how robust the fabric looks. And how bright a white. It’s a very beautiful garment!
It’s really neat to see the original blouse. It looks lovely on you!