Folkwear Patterns - Gibson Girl Blouse

About the Gibson Girl Blouse

The Gibson Girl was the ideal of feminine beauty at the turn of the 20th century.  She often wore a soft, loosely fitted blouse of light cotton or silk with a high collar to accentuate her slender neck. A blouse worn with a skirt became the American woman's favourite fashion.  By 1905, the Sears Roebuck catalogue offered 150 versions of this blouse, from cotton to lace and taffeta.

The high-collar, back-buttoning yoke style is still just as flattering today. This blouse is lovely over a skirt or it can be cut longer to tuck in. Instructions for optional tucks and lace insertion included.

In View A , the high collar and yoke are finished with lace; in View B, rows of stitched lace replace the collar, as was the fashion.  Tucks and lace insertion on the body of the blouse are optional.  Instructions are given in View B for a traditional bias bound cuff.  The back opening and cuffs fasten with tiny buttons or hooks and eyes; clusters of gathers at centre back are held in place by narrow ties, which encircle the waist and tie in front. 

Suggested fabrics: Soft lightweight fabrics such as batiste, lawn, muslin, silk, gingham, or calico.

Era: Edwardian, late 1800s to early 1900s

The Fabric

For your blouse select lightweight fabrics such as batiste, lawn, muslin, silk, or gingham.

Sizing

The Gibson Girl Blouse is a multi-sized patterns including sizes S - 3XL ( bust 32 1/2" [83 cm] to 54" [135cm]).

Level of Difficulty

There is no specified level of difficultly on the pattern, but Folkwear have very good instructions.    The lace insertion would be appropriate with someone used to fine work.