Past Patterns #405 "Edwardian Tucked Blouse," view A, in cotton lawn. I shortened the sleeves to 3/4 length and added blue shell buttons up the center back to coordinate with a blue wool walking skirt. The fullness at center front is controlled with a 1/4" twill waist stay. All the tucks were sewn with silk thread. The hem has an overcast edge finish, as suggested in Shaeffer's Couture Sewing, to avoid a ridge beneath the skirt. The rest of the blouse is finished with french seams, and the armscye are bound. Collar wires from Farthingales (which I covered in batiste to avoid tangling in my hair) are basted to the collar's lining. And as you can see, the blouse is also quite long.
The tucks are laid out beautifully on the pattern. But I did have fitting issues. Specifically, the pattern has sloped shoulders, a narrow neckline, and tight armscye. Given the complexity of the sewing, I'd opted out of doing a mock up. Bad idea. Having to fix these items after all that meticulous work was stressful. But I worked it out for the most part, and ended up using the LM guimpe collar instead. Now the blouse is one of my favorite pieces. Though I'll admit the pigeon-front look takes some getting used to!
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