#music class patterns

The Great Button Tryouts: Music Class Blouse from BurdaStyle

This is my last installment to finish off this blouse. Buttons can be conspicuous–think of rhinestone buttons on a silk evening blouse–or very inconspicuous–most men’s shirts. Or somewhere in between. I like to try out buttons by laying out the various possibilities all at once, and then to finalize the selection, the same button multiple times.

You see in the top photo the various contenders. With so many colors in the fabric print itself, red, blue and white were obviously all in the mix. I settled on blue in part because they were more noticeable than the white, and less noticeable than the red. The red ones seemed to bring yet another element into the mix which seemed too much. The white ones simply disappeared. While the blue gave some structure to a busy print by walking in a sober line down the front of the blouse.

It is still a playful blouse meant for summer weekends, but now its actual structure became apparent. I may this from a rayon print at Fabric Mart.

For the pattern, which is part of a collection called Music Class that has a decidedly vintage air, go here: https://www.burdastyle.com/short-sleeve-blouse-01-2011.html

For the Fabric Mart, which has an ever evolving set of discount offerings, and right now has some very nice swimwear prints, go here: https://www.fabricmartfabrics.com/

Square Sleeves and Round Yolk: The Music Class Blouse

This blouse at BurdaStyle is also dubbed Short Sleeve Blouse 01/2011 and comes as part of a collection called Music Class which has multiple vintage details on its blouses, jackets, and coats. This one in particular intrigued me. The original used loops for the buttons, but I decided to extend the front facings to center the buttons and use buttonholes. Other than that, I did no modifications.

While we don’t often see sleeve attached to blouses with square armholes, they can be found in patterns from the 1930s. We we find one here on a sleeve that flares over the top of the arm and narrows to nothing when it reaches the under arm. I attached the sleeve to the blouse on the vertical seam and then laid the sleeve over the blouse front along the horizontal seam, with seam allowance tucked under, and edge stitched it. Earlier pattern designers preferred laying a pattern piece (with seam allowances pressed under) on top of a another piece and edge stitched when they had a right of acute angle in a design.

Today, we are often told to reinforce the angle seam line with stitching, then clip to the inner corner and then sew the pieces together even as the seam allowance near the clip become TEENY TINY. This creates a far less stable seam and leads to errors during and unravelings after. Laying over was and is often wiser.

Another feature of this blouse is the fabric gathered to the yoke. We do sometimes see gatherings on blouses, especially to replace a dart with the fullness over the front bustline. But we don’t often see them on a rounded yoke to which both front and back and top sleeve edge is gathered. As you can see, you attach those pieces to one another, gather them along their edges and then attache them to the edges of the yoke.

This creates a very soft look around the shoulders, as you can see from their photo, so long as the fabric has a lot of drape. I am using a rayon challis, so it is working. Anything crisper and the sleeves would appear to be taking off in flight, rather than draping, and the whole might seem massive.

I will show you the finished product soon. Meanwhile, you can find this pattern for yourself here. This is PDF pattern that you need to print out, tape together, and add seam allowances and hems. 

https://www.burdastyle.com/short-sleeve-blouse-01-2011.html