The Aeroplane Blouse

After I purchased some fun Michael Miller quilting cotton for the picnic dress, I quickly realized what fun garments they can become. More on this in a sec as I explain from the beginning.

I am always lusting over new-vintage clothing and one of my favorite vintage repro companies is Jitterbuggin. They have THE cutest air plane printed blouse:

I’ve been in love with this blouse for over a year now, but the $99 price tag always made me pause. And no, I’ve never actually bought something from Jitterbuggin, but I would love to.

I sew my own new-vintage garments so I don’t have to pay the high prices of vintage originals or the repro prices. (Although sometimes it is just easier to buy and I wish I had excess cash to do so…)

I don’t know what compelled me or where the thought first occurred, but I somehow got it in my head that I was going to search for some airplane fabric. I got on google images and soon after, found the exact same airplane fabric! I didn’t even know it was ‘purchase-able’ since I had always presumed that it was a custom print.

This airplane print is from Michael Miller called Wild Blue Yonder.

Of course it’s been out of print for some time, but I managed to find some still on etsy from Cotton Studio at $9.50 a yard.

I know $9.50 is a bit on the pricey side for a simple cotton, but with no more to be had & a mission to make my own 40’s styled blouse, how could I resist?!

Seeing as how I had already stitched together a perfect 40’s style blouse with McCalls 7838 I figured why not refit this pattern to make it a a more fitted silhouette for the aeroplane pint?!

Version C is the one I’m using and you can see, the pattern is for a blousey-blouse with drapey fabric. Seeing as how I’m using a quilting weight cotton the blouse needed to be more fitted in order to NOT look like a sack.

I ended up moving the armscye in about 3/4″ on the front of the blouse as well as taking the rest of the side seams in by 1/2″ at the hip to 1″ at the waist and 1″ at the armscye.

I have to tell you guys a quick secret of mine which I may be shamed on: I never grade my patterns!

Before you start hunting me down with torches and pitchforks….

I should state that I’m not going up or down drastic amounts. I only purchase patterns for 32″ to 36″ bust when my true full bust is 33.5″. But vintage patterns have terribly small waists and I’m always adding fabric there no matter what. And yes… I only add where I need at the side seams.

Full Disclosure: I’ve added up to 1.5″ at each side-seam with no issues.

I know the proper thing to do is add throughout the pattern. But really I’ve never EVER had a problem just adding at the sides where I need it. (Armholes and necklines is where you will get into trouble is you do this though.)

You can all shun me now if you need to. But my finished garments fit me just fine and I would have not told you this if it were otherwise.

Since I copy all of my patterns after doing a muslin, this means I now have two handy patterns of my own for McCalls 7838; I have a blouse version and now I have a fitted version at my disposal (for version C).

I paired my aeroplane blouse with my red patent wedges and my Dubarry 5836 cream-colored linen skirt. I did a victory roll in the front and simply bobby-pinned back the remaining front sections of my hair.

Hate to say it… but looking at this blouse image right after my white swiss dot blouse, it doesn’t look very fitted once it’s all tucked in. But you’re going to have to take me at my word on it; I removed upwards of 3 inches of ease at the waist.

This blouse is quickly becoming a lovely staple pattern of mine and I intend to make the other two versions in the fall/winter, as time allows of course. :)

I first tried this blouse on during an 83+ degree day and it seems a bit too hot for the high temps due to the tight weaved nature of the quilting cotton. It’s going to be perfect for milder days and will be wonderful for pairing with cardigans in the winter.

Front bodice detail:

I didn’t bother attempting to match the pattern; it’s far too busy a print to deal with matching.

I found & used some shiny blue buttons from my stash. I was debating using some white ones, but when I saw that the hue of blue in these buttons matched the planes perfectly, they had to be used.

Back bodice detail:

You can see it’s not quite as billowy, but more snug (yet still has some room to breathe).

Land girl Liz:

Felix and I started to have some fun taking pictures. I saw this compost bin close by and seeing as how I’m all decked out in my 40’s best (minus the shoes)… “land girl” imagery just popped into my head. :)