The OUATITW blouse - the plan

OUATITW is, for your information, short for Once Upon A Time In The West, and Once Upon A Time In The West is one of my major film loves. (And major means this: When I first watched it, I cried at the end just because it ended and I didn't want it to, not yet. And because I thought, how on earth can something so beautiful even exist? I still wonder about that. End of fan-girly talk.)

Most people whom I know to love OUATITW vent out their love for it by means of clever talk about its cinematic greatness. I can do that, too, but it pales in comparison.
So I do it by looking into its costumes, among other things.

And now I'm going to do it by making a blouse in reference to it. Although I doubt anyone would notice if I didn't tell you.

I'm going to use a pattern I've wanted to use since August 2000 when it came out in an issue of Burda WOF. Quite impressive, eh? I was twelve back then. I didn't know OUATITW yet, I only knew of its existence and wanted to see it one day, quite badly although not yet badly enough. Anyway, I loved this blouse pattern, although I wasn't quite happy about the very low neckline slit.



Ten years later, I still love the pattern and still am not quite happy about the neckline slit. Unlike back then, though, I now know what's going to become of that pattern.

Something between this:



and this:



That is, I'm going to make it in that navy cotton sateen from previous post in reference to that rogue's shirt (He's not really important; I just like blue, OK?) and I want to drop the sleeve pleats in favour of something that'd resemble Jill's sleeves more. Some kind of smocking, I imagine.

Other changes will be: raising the neckline slit (I doubt it'd make much of a difference in the fit, really - the pattern looks fairly loose), most probably dropping the center back seam (no need for that either, I think), and not using elastic in the sleeves, because elastic in sleeves is sort of crappy. Instead, I want to give it this kind of treatment:



Especially because it seems something very similar is going on at the neckline.
(That is, by the way, the sleeve of my mom's wedding dress, homemade by her mom.)

It's not going to happen immediatelly. Right now I'm working on a chemise to go under my future regency dress (and other things, hopefully), and a pattern for my mom. I started tracing the pattern, though, to get a sense of accomplishment out of it. Because I've wanted to make this blouse for ten years. TEN YEARS. Did I stress that enough? And, you see, what amazes me most about this is the fact that my taste in clothing is still quite similar to that of my twelve-year-old self. Refined in some way, slightly shifted towards things I didn't realise were possible back then, but the basics are the same. It, somehow, makes me happy. Maybe because so many things have happened in the last year that I've recently wondered if I still were the same person... You do not have to worry about my happiness and sanity, though. I still am.

Oh and the sleeve pattern piece? Quite crazy, size-wise, if you ask me:



Yes, those are holes. It's because I hate working with tissue paper on patterns, and because this particular piece of non-tissue paper had got ratty over time, so I had to cut out the ratty parts. And because the sleeve pattern piece is so big that I had to glue other papers to the bottom. Really, it must be about 65 cm wide.

For the record, the pattern is blouse 111, view A, from Burda WOF 8/2000. And I'm cutting between sizes, because I am between sizes myself. I have high hopes for that technique, considering the simple fit of this. I hope I won't be disappointed.


Oh, and on completely sewing-unrelated note, I've just discovered Kate Beaton's comics - mostly historical comics - and I've read through her whole archive today. Quite a crazy thing to do. It made my day, and it killed my day.
If, by any chance, you want to know, the other webcomics I like are Sandra & Woo by Oliver Knörzer & Powree and the very, very irregular Adventures of Boromir by Katarzyna Chmiel. Both influenced by Calvin & Hobbes. And I like Rose is Rose, too. That says something about my taste in comics, eh? And that's about it.