In Search of the Warm Blouse

The dress code (such as it is) in my office is pretty casual: The guys wear chinos or other casual pants with the occasional blue jeans, golf shirts in the summer/casual buttondowns in the winter. On the distaff side, it’s mostly pants all the time, with knit tops and sweaters in the winter. If someone shows up in the skirt or dress, it’s either one of us older types with things left over from the 90s in our wardrobes or someone suspected of being on their way to a job interview. I try to dress a couple of steps up for the only reason that I’m really short and rather round and I feel more formal clothing suits me better. I’d like to wear blouses with my dress slacks in the office but at this time of the year, most blouses are just not warm enough. At that point, I’m starting to layer on a vest, a jacket or sweater and I’ve lost the entire effect.

I learned long ago that finding anything I really want in the stores is a fool’s errand; retail is retail and I have yet to see any retailer carrying something that has some particular characteristic that I’m looking for. A warm blouse? Well, if I had access to upper range consignment stores with the sort of clientele that bought Viyella(tm) blouses (which I think disappeared at least 30 years ago), then I’d have a shot. Viyella(tm) was a wonderful fabric composed of wool and cotton. Very prized. But not something that is available now. So, I set off to find some wool blend fabric that was light enough to make a blouse but not so light that you could see through it.

As luck would have it, I found just what I needed at Fabric Mart Fabrics, a rayon and wool blend. After running it through the washer (the fabric is marked ‘dry clean only’ but I always wash my wool to shrink it up a bit), which shrank it quite a lot and brought out the boucle nature of it. It really felt and looked a little bit like very thin terry cloth. I actually did not buy enough, really — the blouse ended up long enough to tuck into pants or a skirt with a higher waist, but I really could have used more to lengthen the body of the blouse. I also bought some heavier satin lining for the body, which did not interfere with the drape of the wool at all.

The pattern I used is actually not a blouse pattern at all; it’s a vintage McCalls NY NY pattern, with an interesting bodice. The back which you can’t see from the photo, has two pleats in the back that go all the way down to the hem. The front in the pattern has rather deep darts at the hem going up below the bust point. I turned those into small pleats instead since I was using a heavier fabric. The sleeves have an interesting closure at the bottom – a sort of ‘sneaky Pete’ trick with a pleat and a button just sewn on to narrow the dolman sleeve into the wrist. The pattern features several different construction detailing items (different sleeves, multiple pockets, a second bodice with a shawl collar) which afford a lot of changes and feature the use of shoulder pads, which I happen to like a lot (I feel as a short person, I feel the need to use any and all visual tricks to give me height and width at the shoulder and shoulder pads are my favorite, frankly). The original fabric choices on the envelope are: challis, crepe, washed silks, rayon, cotton knits, jersey, and soft cottons. The description reads: Very loose-fitting dress has bodice with front darts, back pleats, back yoke with forward shoulder seams, dropped shoulders, shoulder pads and collar and pocket variations; pleated skirt with side front pockets sewn to the bodice slightly below the natural waistline.

One of the reasons I wanted to use this pattern is that I want to make some interesting drapey dresses for the summer; I was thinking this dress might be a good one to work with and after my experience with making up the bodice as a blouse, I’m going to be on the look out for some lightweight rayon crepe or challis for a couple of work dresses for the summer.