Eva Dress 1938 Blouse: Bias the Bodice, Not the Sleeve
I started cutting blouse fronts on the bias, i.e. on the diagonal, for two reasons. First, to play with small plaids, and second, because a 1930s magazine article noted one season that all the blouses were cut on the bias, even the tailored ones. The 1930s saw a move away from the tube silhouette of the 1920s, towards a clear marking of the waistline, as well as slinky, bias-cut dresses which can be so erotically revealing that they can be hard to wear in public. Madeleine Vionnet was the master of this. So, I started experimenting, figuring a blouse would not be erotically slinky on the bias.
I found you get a closer, yet elastic fit as the bias allows the threads to slide past each other. I was able to eliminate the side snap placket on this blouse because I could now easily slip it over my head. Of course, you must handle the bias-cut seams gently, taking care not to stretch them as you sew. And some elements of a design, like this twist-tie needed rethinking. The bias makes them significantly longer, so I had to cut them several inches shorter shorter. Rayon is especially stretchy when cut on the bias
Do not bother placing a set-in sleeve on the bias as it make it far harder to sew in. As you can see from the red lines I drew, most of a sleevehead is on the bias when you cut on the straight of grain (which are the vertical black lines on the grid). If you shift to a bias-cut you put most of the sleevehead onto the straight-of grain, defeating your own purpose.
This is one of my favorite blouse patterns, but it comes with puffy sleeveheads, a look that does not work for me, so I simply swap out the sleeve pattern piece for another, simpler one.
You can find this and other vintage pattern reproductions here: https://www.evadress.com/
