Selina Blouse

Somewhere in March, Leimomi from Scroop Patterns sent out a call for pattern testers for her new pattern. The Selina blouse is a 1910’s style blouse.

As it happened, I had a length of blue cotton in my stash which was (once upon a time) meant for a 1910s style blouse for history bounding. I also had time to make it within the timescale for testers, so I signed up!

I’d been eyeing Scroop Patterns for a little while already, I just hadn’t had the occasion to try any out yet. I’ve also been reading Leimomi’s blog (https://thedreamstress.com/) for years, it was one of the things which got me into historical costuming. Plus, I met her when I was in NZ for work before pandemic times, and she’s a lovely person! All in all, I was really happy to be able to join in as a tester here, and work with one of her patterns.

As tester, we’re sent a first version of the pattern and instructions. Our first deadline was the mock-up stage, to report general fitting issues. For me, the fit was pretty good, but the peplum was too narrow. I have rather wide hips compared to my waist, so the peplum didn’t quite fit. Please note that this issue might be resolved in the final pattern! The main point of us testing was to figure out how the pattern worked on diverse body shapes.

A still from the little fitting video I took

Based on tester input, we then got sent some fitting/adjustment instructions and help, and I could get started on the actual blouse! I picked view A, with the false lapels and collar. In the actual blouse I ended up lengthening the sleeves just a little bit (I have wide shoulders for my size) and widening the peplum at the bottom for more hip flare.

The blouse itself sewed up very nicely. In general, I was very impressed with the instructions and the pictures, which made it very clear what to do. The blouse has a number of different types of seams, which can be finished in different ways, and the pattern gives you several options including historical notes. I folded some seams into themselves, and zigzagged others. I also chose to top-stitch whenever possible, in white, for a little bit of contrast.

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  Topstitching along the sleeve seam and collar

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  Top stitching along the buttons

For the buttons, I debated between using pearls or metal, both coming from my stash. In the end, I picked the metal ones, both because they’re a little bit more neutral with the blouse and the white top-stitching, and because I have more of the pearls than I’d need and those are good for other historical projects too.

For the pictures, I wore the blouse with my blue wool circle skirt. Because I’m wearing the skirt on top of an extra petticoat, the peplum was still a bit tight with all the skirts, and I decided to just tuck it in. This works quite well, although it is best with a belt as the waistline is just a smidge high, so to hide the waistline peeking above the skirt band. I’m mostly planning to wear this blouse in a history-bounding setting, but now I know that if I want to start an 1910’s outfit, I’ve already got one piece!

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