A French Edwardian blouse pattern

I ought to have posted by now with my finished HSF challenge 4 but I have not yet finished it. It is nearly done, but now I’ve missed the deadline I don’t feel like busting a gut on it, so it is happily being knitted as a TV project rather than an every minute I can knit project.

I have been thinking about the next one though, which is a bodice of some kind. As it happens, my unfinished challenge 4 could count as it is a vest, but I have this original Edwardian pattern I bought on ebay.

1904 French blouse

It’s in French, which I am not very good at, but I’ve had a stab with the ‘help’ of Google translate. I say help because it has tried to tell me one of my patterns should be the size of a single room, rather than cut in one piece 😀 but I have also had the offer of help from real French speakers who also do the HSF (merci boucoup!) so I am going to post the instructions here with google’s translation which I have cleaned up a little and commented on. I don’t know why the font changes size, except word press doesn’t always like formatting copied and pasted from word processors, but maybe it is only looking odd on my screen?

The instructions in their original print.

Ce boléro ne sera pas doublé sauf l’empiècement,le col et les poignets qui seront doublés d’une percale.

This bolero will not be doubled except the yoke, collar and cuffs to be lined with a percale (which is a tightly woven cotton, often used for bed sheets).

Couper une hauteur pour les devants et une hauteur pour le dos. Les devants seront coupés en plaçant le milieu du devant le long de la lisière du linon. Le lé du dos sera plié en deux dans le sens de la longeur et le milieu du dos placé le long de ce pli pour avoir le dos sans couture.

Cutting height for front and back height. The front will be cut by placing the center front along the edge of the lawn. The back is folded in half along the length and the middle back placed along the crease to get back seamlessly.

Les empiècements 3 et 4 seront coupés doubles, celui du dos sans couture derrière. Laisser un cm de tissu tout autour pour prendre les coutures. Chaque manche est coupée dans une largeur de linon; le pointillé du croquis sera droit til. Le poignet et le col seront coupés en linon et en percale comme doublure. Le col sera sans couture derrière.

Yokes 3 and 4 will double cut, the back seamless behind. Leave a cm of fabric around to make the seams. Each round is cut in a wide lawn, dotted sketch will til law (!!! I think it must mean something like that the yoke is edged, perhaps with lace, as shown on the drawing shaded with dots). Wrist and neck will be cut and percale linen as lining. The neck is seamless behind.

Apprêter l’empiècement, assembler les coutures d’épaule indiquées par un cran sur le croquis. Essayer et échancrer l’encolure sur la personne.

Prepare yoke, assemble the shoulder seams indicated by a notch on the sketch. Try échancrer and neck on the person.

La doublure sera légèrement soutenue sous l’empiècement. Faire 3 rangs de fronces au haut et 3 rangs au bas des devants. Ces fronces seront, la première, au bord de la couture, les autres espacées de 1cm. Ces fronces sont arrêtées à environ 5cm du milieu de chaque devant.

The lining is slightly supported under the yoke. Make 3 rows of ruffles at the top and bottom 3 rows of the front. These creases are, first, to the edge of the seam, the other spaced 1cm. These gathers are stopped at about 5cm middle of each front.

Le dos sera également garni de 3 rangs de fronces en haut et en bas correspondant à celles des devants. Bàtir les coutures de dessons de bras. Bâtir le boléro à l’empiècement. Tirer les fronces du bas à la largeur de la taille de la personne, et celles du haut à la largeur de l’empiècement. Essayer, mettre autour du bolèro une bande linon droit fil sur laquelle sera appliqué l’entre-deux.

The back is also lined with three rows of ruffles at the top and bottom corresponding to those of the front. Make the underarm seams. Construct the bolero yoke. Make the bottom ruching to the width of the size of the person, and those of the top to the width of the insert. Try putting a band around the Bolero linen thread on which law will be applied between the two.

Poser l’entre-deux sur l’empiècement, les devants et le bas du boléro. L’on remarquera qu’entre les deux rangs d’entre-deux du devant se trouve un espace formant gilet. Au milieu des devants seront des boutons et des boutonnières fermant le boléro. La garniture est complétée devant par une cravate en ruban fantaisie et deux losanges dentelle dans lesquels passera le ruban.

Put between the two (layers of the?) yoke, the front and the bottom of bolero(?). It is noted that between the two rows of two-front is a space forming a waistcoat. Amid will lead buttons and buttonholes closing the bolero (I assume they are saying the opening here should have a strip of reinforced fabric or something, as the picture seems to indicate more than just buttons applied to the single layer of lawn, which would not be strong enough?). The trim is complemented by a front tie fancy lace ribbon and two diamonds where will the ribbon (again, thank you google for making perfect sense but it seems there is a wide ribbon tied round the neck with two lozenges of lace applied to it, from the picture. I would make a stab at the translation being ‘the trim is completed to the front with a tie of fancy ribbon with two lozenges of lace.

L’empiècement est garni de losanges comme le montre la figurine. Le col rabattu est uni. La manche est froncée en haut en le bas. Les fronces du bas sont ramenées à la largeur du poignet. Celui-ci est garni d’entre-deux et de losanges. La manche toute terminée sera montée au boléro. Ce boléro peut être fait en toile, dans ce cas les fronces seront remplacées par des petits plis dans le sens de la longueur. Rappelons qu’il est bon de décatir le tissu avant de l’employer pour éviter qu’il rétrécisse au premier blanchissage.

The yoke is trimmed with lozenges, as shown in figure. The turndown collar is attached. The sleeve is gathered up in the bottom. The gathers at the bottom are reduced to the width of the wrist. This is garnished with lozenges. The sleeve will be installed to finish the bolero. This can be done Bolero fabric(??? are you suggesting an alternate fabric here?), in this case the pleats are replaced by small folds in the length direction. Remember, it is good to (pre-wash, I assume) fabric before using it to prevent it from shrinking in the first laundering.