How I made 223 A Lady's Chemise into a Blouse!

November 09, 2023 7 Comments on How I made 223 A Lady's Chemise into a Blouse!

by Esi Hutchinson

When it comes to lingerie, there are countless options to choose from.  And Folkwear has been exploring our own designs of lingerie this year in particular, with our new 1950s-inspired patterns 510 Passion Flower and 511 Juliette's Dream. We also have the Edwardian 226 Princess Slip which makes great nighttime wear but could also be made for a more formal outing in my opinion. I've been thinking about making it recently into an everyday dress, so maybe I'll tackle that project soon.  And lots of other vintage lingerie, undergarments, and nighwear patterns can also be great modern day daywear. However, this blog post will show you how I made another one of Folkwear's undergarment patterns into a blouse from the 223 A Lady's Chemise.

Folkwear's 223 A Lady's Chemise pattern is based on chemises that were worn in the mid- to late-1800s. Chemises were originally worn right next to the skin as a simple, practical garment to protect outer clothing (including corsets and stays) from sweat and body oils. However, over time, they evolved into a fashionable and seductive lingerie item. This vintage dress still resonates in style today, with baby doll style dresses, tops and lingerie with beautiful lace and bows. 

Our chemise is a loose-fitting undergarment that can be made into a blouse or a dress, falling to whatever length you desire. It makes a great nightdress or a dress for everyday wear.  I made a blouse and will show you the changes I made so that you can do it too!

Typically, the chemise was made from lightweight and breathable fabrics such as cotton lawn, voile, silks, lightweight muslin, and linen. For our pattern, you also need eyelet beading, lace or eyelet ruffles to finish and embellish the neckline and sleeves.

Folkwear suggests using silks, like crepe de chine and charmeuse, which would give it such a beautiful and luxurious look and feel (I don't know who doesn't love silk). Satin, cotton, or rayon challis and other lightweight fabrics such as batiste, lawn, voile, gauze, eyelet, and handkerchief linen would also work well. We recently have been loving our new cotton/linen blends from Merchant and Mills, its a great substitute for linen or cotton that would work really well. Our cotton voiles and Indian cotton are also light and breathable and would suit this garment as well.  For this shirt, I used our cotton/linen blend in Blackberry.  It is a bit hard to tell on the screen, but this fabric is woven like a chambray and looks different at different angles.  It is very pretty!  Check out or fabric collection, I am super proud of it right now, we have so many options and I just want to buy everything for myself.

Now to show you how I made this pattern into a shirt for myself.  Not only did I shorten the pattern to make a blouse, I made some design changes as I went that were fun and gave me a look I was really pleased with.  I love using my creativity when sewing to take a fabulous pattern and make it perfect for me (and you should too!).  Lets begin!

Cutting the Pattern and Tracing the Pleats

First, I traced the pattern in a size small.  I wanted to make a shirt-length top, not a dress-length garment, so I shortened the front and back by cutting the pattern about 18.5" (47cm) from the top of the center front/back on the pattern piece (I did not use the lengthen/shorten lines, but you could!).  The other thing to know about this pattern when starting, is that the front and back are cut and pleated, and then they are cut again after pleating to make the neckline (after the pleats are basted).  This is to make the tiny pleats easier to manage.  But it also gives you some flexibility about where you want your neckline to fall.  

I traced my pattern on tracing fabric (and to get the most out of this fabulous sewing product, we often tape sections together of previously used pieces to get full pattern pieces).

There are a LOT of pleat lines, but don't let that discourage you!  The easiest way to transfer these markings to your fabric is to use tracing paper and a tracing wheel.  If you don't have these tools, they are indispensable and last a very long time.  

I used a double tracing wheel here because I could set it to trace several lines at the same time.  

I took a long break to decide what I wanted the blouse to look like. I love the way the pleats look pinned in the image above, however in the pattern, the pleats are released as the pattern is sewn.  I liked the pintucked look better than released tucks, but was concerned that when I cut the neckline with the pattern template, it would so reduce the length of these pintucks I liked that I would hardly see them after cutting the neckline according to the pattern template.  So I raised the neckline 1" (2.5cm) above the original neckline and cut a new neckline. 

Original pattern neckline template on my front.

Here I chalked a new cutting line, 1" above the template neckline. Note that by doing this I added to the shoulder of the pattern too. I could have made the chalk line go toward the original shoulder line, but I liked my pintucks too much, I guess.

 

I liked the look of both the "right" and "wrong" sides of my front and back, but I had to pick one. I picked the side that looked like an accordion, the one on the right to be my "right" side of the front (and back).

I machine stitched the pressed edge of the facing towards the bodice.

Since I changed the neckline I forgot to change the sleeves and facing prior. However I think its best to assemble the sleeves and cut them after to fit the neckline if you made any changes.

I made all my button holes (I was very patient!). And, also made sure to mark the dots on this piece that indicate where they meet on the sleeves. I cut the buttonholes open (note: you can use fray check on the buttonholes before you cut them open). And I stitched this neckline casing with right sides together at the short ends.

I turned the casing all the way to the front of the bodice (wrong side of casing to right side of bodice) and pressed.  I then folded under 1/4" (6mm) on the un-stitched side of the casing and topstitched the casing close to the folded edge on the right side of the bodice. 

 

My finished fabric ribbon.

I stitched binding to the bodice hem using 1/4" (6mm) seam allowance with wrong sides together.  I trimmed seam to be very even.  I then pressed under 1/4" (6mm) on the binding towards the right side of the bodice and stitched the binding to bodice close to the pressed edge.

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