Sunday 21 April 2013

The "We Have All The Time In The World" Blouse

Although my childhood was largely in the 1970s I wouldn't exactly describe myself as a Sixties / Seventies flower-child. I lacked the requisite length of hair for a start, in which to insert a strategic flower, when an appropriate opportunity presented itself, and to wear loose and long, like Françoise Hardy or Carly Simon. My mother, for some unknown reason, didn't approve of jeans and we were never allowed any as children so I never wore frayed bell-bottoms, topped with a cheesecloth blouse, with puffy sleeves and broderie anglaise lace panels.


Bare feet were also a no-no for wandering about in and flip-flops were regarded as "silly and dangerous" - "no proper support for the feet and liable to cause you to trip", according to my mother. I can't tell you how much I longed for a pair of plastic, flowery flip-flops, aged nine or ten, but there was nothing doing! My mother much preferred to spend her money on sensible sandals for my sister and myself, to be worn with ankle socks. I have taken against ankle socks ever since.

One summer I was so desperate for the forbidden flip-flop that, while my mother's back was conveniently turned, I cut up a pair of old slippers (my childhood "happy snipper" tendencies clearly to the fore again!) and glued a strap made out of an old mackintosh belt in place, to produce a makeshift homemade pair. I thought they were marvellous and click-clacked around the garden all day in them until the glue gave way and my glamorous flip-flops were no more!

Perhaps because all this left an element of unfulfilled longing for the accoutrements of hippiness, as an adult, I have indulged my longing for some of these things, certainly for flip-flops and longer hair, although I never wear it loose because of its deeply regrettable tendency to curl on me. I have been known to stick the odd flower in it, however, and I like to walk barefoot. I live whenever possible in jeans and more recently I have discovered in myself a longing for a flower-child-blouse with hippy notes to it. Not cheesecloth, but not far off it and with the requisite broderie anglaise lace trimming.

I actually completed most of it about six months ago but then, over the winter, it lingered, unfinished, with the odd pin dropping out of it periodically while it drooped slightly sadly, on a hanger, on the back of a door. With the arrival of Spring and sun in the last few days, I suddenly had an imperative urge to finish it and here it is.




It's a genuine vintage pattern from the late Seventies, or early Eighties perhaps - McCalls 4031


(found on Ebay in the course of a flower-child-blouse-hunt) - which I chopped up to create patchwork panels out of three odd half metres of fabric I'd bought in a mix-and-match set of prints just because I loved them.


Not enough to make the whole blouse on their own, I added a metre of a contrasting dark blue print to eke them out. The bottom hem is edged with some genuine seventies lace hoarded in my sewing basket since I was about ten - does this make it genuine vintage lace? I think it might, if not antique!


There wasn't quite enough to edge the entire hem as well as fill in the gap below the neckline which I had inadvertently slashed too far. (Eek! Why don't you read the instructions more carefully, Mrs T?!) But I managed to stretch it with a small amount of a different (also vintage 1970s) lace, inserted unobtrusively at the side of the hem where it doesn't show very much.

I've called it after Louis Armstrong's famous number "We Have All The Time In The World". We don't have all the time in the world, of course; as James Bond and his girl didn't at the end of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", where the song made its 1969 début, but it reminds me that sometimes "having time" is not about having unlimited hours but about choosing it and revelling in it for the moments it lasts and wearing this blouse in the sudden April sunshine makes me feel that.


I know it's just a bit of clothing but sometimes wearing something that speaks strongly to oneself can make a big difference to how one feels and this does it for me. It's a little bit hippyish and flower-child-like and gives me the feeling, possibly illusory I grant you, of time spent, without one eye on the clock, and dreamily drifting, barefoot (or flip-flopped, of course!), among flowers and by still waters with time just to be.


You can subject any straightforward shirt pattern to the chop-and-patchwork principle - just remember that each time you cut a section, you need to add on an additional seam allowance to both sides of the cut pattern pieces. A pattern using essentially simple linear shapes is easiest and personally I'd eschew anything cut on the bias to divvy up in this way but it's a fantastic way to use bits of fabric you love, even if you haven't got enough of any one fabric to make a whole garment. It's also a good way to use a fabric that is too expensive to buy in large quantity, but affordable when in small amounts and mixed with other cheaper fabric.

A couple of further tips if you think you might give something similar a go. Think about how the panels will work together when made up, when you choose where to place your fabrics, ie don't cut your best showcase fabric into panels that will end up hidden round the back of the garment and don't make the patches too small or it will become very fiddly and also fabric-hungry because of all the extra seam allowances.

Might chop up a skirt pattern next and acquire some cheesecloth! 

38 comments:

  1. This is lovely - well worth the wait. Just seeing that lace reminded me of the edging I had on a three tier skirt (remember them) that I made out of a strange brown floral fabric at school - must have been about 1976. Thumbs up for flip flops! Jane x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ooh yes, I had one of those three tiered skirts! Perhaps I must see if I can resurrect one of those too! What a good thought - thank you! E x

      Delete
  2. Dear E
    What a beautiful blouse you have created - really personal and unique. I did have some cheesecloth blouses (hand me downs from my sisters) but they were from the 1970s I think. Your blouse really suits you and you look at one with nature!
    Congratulations and best wishes
    Ellie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Ellie! I am seriously thinking of cheesecloth next! E x

      Delete
  3. I LOVE it! Ahh, I really must drive up to Oxfordshire in the summertime and have a good chinwag about growing up in the 70s! I would love to show you my photo album - I was the youngest of 5 and my sister was such a fashionable girl - she would make a weekly trip to Biba in South Ken. In the early 80s I became a real hippie - I even went barefoot on a CND march around London and when we decamped en famile to Ireland in the summer, I would go for days and days without any footwear at all! So glad you've got the sewing things out again - when is your Flora going to arrive and will you show her to us? I wonder what you will call her? I have spent about 10 hours marking this weekend so only a few granny squares completed on the creative side. As I sit here in my blue chair, next to Flora, time and space are expanding in my head where I have lots of plans to do many things, but back in the real world I've just made a list of 'things I need to get done this week', and unfortunately none of them involve sewing. Judy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What a good idea - email me! Glad you too have the hippy tendency and a sister making regular trips to Biba - fabulous! My equivalent of Flora has indeed arrived and I love her already! She is French clearly as her "skin" is covered in French script but am still pondering a name for her! I know what you mean about time, it's not easy juggling everything. Hope an unexpected sewing oasis pops up for you this week! E x

      Delete
  4. Elizabeth, you've done it again!!! Gorgeous! I too am a closet 'hippy chick' and LOVE your new addition!! Really think you need to crochet some tiny flowers and make a garland for your head now! Much love xxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Laura! What a brilliant idea! Either a garland or perhaps a single hooky flower - feel I might be too old now for the garland option sadly but on the other hand why not?! E x

      Delete
  5. Gorgeous ... love it :D

    I like tops like this too, but until I can shift the post steroid treatment weight I don't really have the figure for them. At least my mother let me wear something similar as a teen.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Annie and for your email. I'll be popping a wee parcel in the post to you tomorrow hopefully. E x

      Delete
  6. Super cute! What a fine hippie you are! I love what we called "smocks" when I was a teenager. My mom was fussy about barefooted flip flopping, too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Pom pom! Yes, it is really a smock. i love that floaty airy feel associated with smocks! Glad I'm not the only one to have had a mother against barefooted flip flopping! Making up for lost time now though! E x

      Delete
  7. What a lovely pretty blouse - you have chosen the fabric combinations really well and they work harmoniously together! I too have the urge to wear something pretty with my jeans - I am really fed up with the usual plain tshirt. I am delighted to say you have inspired me - yet again! best wishes Nikkix

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Nikki! The fabric combo was a bit serendipitous as I hadn't bought the original selection with any intention to make a garment at all and it was lucky that the dark blue eked out the other prints OK. Glad it's provided inspiration - have a go! E x

      Delete
  8. Very cute. I love it. It looks comfortable as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! It is very comfortable! I could live in it, given half a chance! E x

      Delete
  9. Clever you, the blouse is lovely....I've got the bit between my teeth about sewing after watching that sewing competition on the BBC, I'm not particularly good at sewing, but have a real want to try a dress making course.....maybe one day!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thank you, Faith! I'd say have a go, if you fancy the idea! I'd gravitate to patterns labelled "2 hour" or "easy" as they are pretty straightforward and it's always encouraging to dip one's toe in the water with something that works first time. Before you know it you'll be running up couture fitted stuff, I bet! Anyone who can knit like you can will find dressmaking a breeze! E x

    ReplyDelete
  11. Peace and love, man! This is super groovy. Nice work. :-)

    It's very reminiscent of a maxi-dress I had circa 1972...brings back good memories.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Astri! A maxi dress - methinks could be another welcome wardrobe addition! E x

      Delete
  12. Love your memories! Mine are quite different as my parents were very young and more on the hippie side themselves. I used to never wear shoes -- even in the grocery store! My mother, who is quite a seamstress, heavily embroidered everything we wore for a while. I did have a pair of jeans with fringe on the bottom, but I actually caught the fringe on fire while helping a friend burn leaves!!! Thankfully, our safety training kicked it and I smothered it out with a jacket. Love, love your top and you look very pretty in it:) Wishing you very peaceful thoughts while you wear it. A x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh how lovely to have spent your childhood barefoot! And jeans with a fringe - super! Well done you for being quick though when the fringes caught fire - hope they survived their singeing! Have you kept any of the things your mother embroidered? I bet they were beautiful. E x

      Delete
  13. Oh Elizabeth, it's glorious, and so you! I spent the whole of the 70s in flip flops (the joys of growing up places with not a shoe shop in sight) and blame that on my complete inability to wear heels as an adult.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Ali! Not a shoe in sight - how wonderful! E x

      Delete
  14. Love it Elizabeth. You are talented with your scissors and faithful sewing machine! Love your choice of fabric, it's very you.

    Helen xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Helen! I am pleased to say my elderly sewing machine is still holding up well at least for this sort of thing! I encountered a few problems asking her to sew a felted jumper but straightforward cotton fabrics she is still on track with! E x

      Delete
  15. That is gorgeous! Your mother must have learnt her sensible dressing ideas at the same place as mine did, I was never allowed jeans either (they are, apparently, workmen's clothes), so they were the very first thing I bought myself when I left home

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Christine! Fascinating you weren't allowed jeans either! I'm not really sure what my mother's rationale about the jeans was - I must check to see whether it was the same association! I bet you loved that first pair of jeans you had! E x

      Delete
  16. OH suits you sir!! You look lovely in your jeans and chill out blouse. I love clothes like this, but am pretty darned sure a top like this just does not (unfairly) suit me - but it sure suits you and it is spot on boho! How brilliant you can just rustle yourself up something when you feel the urge. Childhood wants - satisfied. Shame about the flip flops though!
    x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Janice! Glad you feel it hits the boho spot! I really do like a bit of boho I am finding!! Dressmaking isn't as complicated as it looks you know especially if you start off simply. E x

      Delete
  17. Nádherná práca, krásne ušité a farby veľmi pekne zladené. Veľmi sa mi páči.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Ajka! I hope i have managed to translate correctly! Thank you so much for visiting. E x

      Delete
  18. Fab top - very hippy! It reminds me of a long dress I had when I was about 17 that was made entirely of patchwork (I can still visualise individual pieces of fabric). Flip flops or clogs? I remember living virtually in both for a couple of years. Last night I cut up a skirt to make a top; do you think there's something in the air?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ooh a patchwork long dress - now there's a thought! Someone else mentioned a maxi dress and the thought is beginning to take hold! Wasn't allowed clogs as a child either but this never seemed the deprivation that the lack of flip-flops were! Yes, definitely something boho in the Spring air! E x

      Delete
  19. You look so relaxed and happy in your new top. The fact that waited so long to indulge in your hippy side probably makes its wearing all the more pleasurable. It's good to see a picture of you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Liz! Yes that's very true - waiting to indulge my hippy side has probably meant it has been revelled in properly! E x

      Delete
  20. The blouse is beautiful, as are you. What lovely photos. I have always been in thrall to the flares, floaty top and flip flop idea of fashion, and am never happier than in my flip flops as soon as it's warm enough. Not flares though - flares AND flip flops really are hazardous - you can trip on the hem!! x

    ps. Thanks for the crochet snake tips - I did actually re-visit your post and sadly that book seems to be out of print, so I've found a similar pattern online.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Thank you Gillian! What a lovely thing to say! Good point re flares AND flip flops! Will email you re snakey! E x

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit me at Mrs TT's and comment. I love to read what you write.