DuBarry 5637 (1943) Part I: Blouse introduction

Listening: Pharis & David Romero, Long Gone Out West Blues (2013).

I've gotten distracted again.  I think this is justifiable, though; I need blouses.  I need work blouses more, but I'll start with a weekend blouse.

DuBarry 5637 (1943) is a casual slacks/shorts and "jacket" pattern.


I have to resize this.  There are two copies of it in my size range for sale on Etsy but they're priced between $22 and $50; I got this one on eBay in a lot of four patterns for $6.99 plus shipping.  It's in factory folds and the envelope is in as good or better condition as the two expensive ones.  Win!  I didn't want the other three patterns but for that price, even if can't sell them and end up donating them to Goodwill, I can't complain.  It's a size 12/bust 30, but the blouse is pretty simple so grading it up shouldn't be too bad (resizing the pants, though, if I ever have the guts to attempt them, could be a doozy.  I'm super intimidated by pants).

The fabric is a budget 1930's reproduction from Hobby Lobby, blue with daisies.  I have a love-hate thing going on with this print.  They've carried it forever--they used to have it in light green, too, but that went out of stock years ago--and I kind of hate it because it's saccharine and because it's an unimaginative take on 1930's-style prints . . . and yet it draws me in every time I go in there.  I finally decided that that made it the perfect candidate for a second-draft muslin: I'll use scrap for the first round to work out the worst of the kinks, and the blue for the second round where I want to do a good job but am not going to be totally crushed if the results make me look like Shirley Temple's dowdy older sister.


The pattern calls this a jacket.  I'll be leaving the pockets off so I can tuck it in if I want, and adding more buttons to make it more like a normal blouse.

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