Gingham garment two!

I am incredibly proud of this top because it’s the special gingham. And it’s cute. And it’s self drafted?? From a magazine article and not from my measurements or whatnot, but I did it!

This 4 1/2 hour bolero top appeared in Woman & Beauty July 1948 according to this Vintage Chic blog post. I had a day off of both work and children and MADE IT. (Along with a swimsuit to be posted soon!)

Actually tbh i had done the first muslin a week or two earlier but there was much left to do.

The first draft wasn’t great, but not that that was surprising given the lack of data about the shape of the draft and the body it was drafted for. Also I know my bust is somewhere in the ballpark of what these are drafted for, so I could work with it.

I really couldn’t picture how it went together for some reason so that first muslin was super helpful. And… I used my dressform to figure it out! I never do that.

Mostly I never do that because until recently it wouldn’t stand up straight, thus rendering it nearly useless. But my husband fixed that for me!! It’s really wonderful. Thought I took a photo of it in action, but guess I skipped progress pics on this one!

Now, my dress form is padded to my measurements but has the fatal flaw of having bigger, perkier boobs than mine are currently (if only I’d fixed the base while still breastfeeding, when it actually could be padded up to my size). So I knew even with a drape on it, I would still have to test the garment on myself.

Unfortunately for my fabric use minimization ambitions, I had to add fabric a wedge of fabric at both sideseams and change the shape from my original draft enough that I couldn’t reuse the original pieces. This update seemed more or less OK on the form so it moved to me.

Round 2 I still needed to add 3 cm to the bottom, but otherwise had no major fit issues. The gingham is somewhat translucent, so underlining was in order. Making no other fit changes, I zig zagged the bottom edge of the second muslin to use as the underlining and cut the gingham lower as needed. I was also feeling stingy with the gingham, given that it is after all incredibly precious abuela gingham, so I cut the ties shorter in the gingham.

Then some pink bias tape finishing along the bottom hem and back neck, the front wrap simply folded over generously in the draft, and arm holes done with a small double fold hem merging right into a clean finish on the side seams. Finished off on a car ride with some handsewing of loose ends, tie ends, etc, and there we go.

And the finished project is sunshiney fun, especially with the shorts.

One more garment left to make with this fabric, then we’re done. I know what I want to make but can’t quite get myself there to start it. These have all worked out well but I feel nervous to be done with this fabric, and really would love to have a head scarf and a skirt in it for maximum outfit feels.

Pattern: “Make for the Sun” 1948 magazine article self draft
Fabric: cotton gingham found in my abuela’s traveller trunk
My measurements: bust 34, high bust 33
Next time: more dress form use for me! I need to get better about transferring pattern edits to paper immediately because i still need to do that a couple weeks later. Longer ties on this next time.