Sunday, November 4, 2012

Ottobre 05/2007-1 "Vintage Blouse"

Wait, it's not for the kids! That's right, I finally tried out an Ottobre Woman pattern!
This is the "Vintage Blouse", style #1 from the 05/2007 issue of Ottobre Woman. It is one of the styles that really caught my eye when I first got this issue last year. The fabric I used is a Tencel shirting from FabricMart. I think the soft drape it has is perfect for the vintage styling of this blouse.
It is a fairly basic style, with darts for shaping. I haven't ever been completely successful fitting a darted blouse, and while this is the best I've gotten so far, it isn't perfect. The horizontal bust darts are too long, and my initial placement of the vertical dart was totally off. After the blouse was completely finished, I ended up unpicking the dart and moving it. It was not my happiest moment.
The collar is one piece, without a stand. I generally prefer a collar with stand, but this is a style I see quite often in vintage patterns. It is definitely easier to sew, and I think it has a ladylike look. I interfaced the collar, front facings and cuffs with silk organza. I thought that a sew in interfacing would be more vintage feeling, and silk organza paired nicely with the tencel. I love the crisp drape it has.
The sleeves are gathered into narrow cuffs. The pattern attaches the cuffs with topstitching, and also includes topstitching on the collar and down the front edges. I omitted all of the topstitching and slipstitched my cuffs down by hand.
One of the things I was looking forward to exploring with this pattern is how the Ottobre blouse draft works for me. I'm happy to say that I think it is comparable to Burda, in that the ease in the pattern is not excessive. I made my "usual" fit adjustments (although as I mentioned, I'm still working on perfecting the FBA on a darted bodice) and the fit is reasonable. I do wish I had done a broad back adjustment though. I generally need one, and didn't do it here for some reason and I do have a bit of tightness when I move my arms forward. There is a shoulder dart in this pattern, so a broad back adjustment would actually be quite easy.
I'm not usually a "tucker", but I like this blouse tucked into my high waisted jeans. It has a bit of a Rosie the Riveter vibe, yes?

ETA: I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who had trouble fitting this blouse on a large bust. Debbie and Angie, both of whom are excellent and experienced seamstresses, had trouble with this draft, so if you want to make this blouse, tread carefully and check out Debbie's review.

This is the final piece of my Fall Wardrobe for the SAL on PR, so as soon as I can get photos edited, I'll do an outfit post with the other four pieces.

6 comments:

Debbie Cook said...

Your blouse turned out lovely, but please don't use this pattern as a gauge for how the OW draft fits you because, unfortunately, this pattern has drafting errors. It's the only OW pattern I've used that had errors, but still. Anyway, just thought you'd want to know. My review showing the errors is here ... http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/readreview.pl?readreview=1&reviewnum=28619 Other than this pattern, I love OW patterns so I do encourage you to try another. :-)

angie.a said...

I was just thinking what Debbie already said! Of course I used the larger sizes, and you're on the tiny side, so maybe the smaller draft is better? But read Debbie's review for sure.

It's a lovely blouse on you. There's another white blouse in a later issue that is so pretty. I'll have to look it up and see which one if you're interested. I haven't made it so I can't say anything about the draft!

Also..."It was not my happiest moment." TEEHEHEHEE!!! Been there, sister.

Linda L said...

Pretty blouse! Tucked or untucked it looks good!

Sam Rose said...

It looks lovely!

Diana said...

Great looking shirt!

Kitschy Coo said...

I have at least six OW magazines and haven't tried a single one yet :)