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Gibson Girl Blouse with neck opening: How To

February 09, 2025 3 Comments on Gibson Girl Blouse with neck opening: How To

by Molly Hamilton

I have been wanting to make our 205 Gibson Girl Blouse for several years, but it never came to the top of my "need to make" list until late last year when we bought a roll of this dainty dark floral silk/viscose blend fabric. This Italian fabric was a Liberty-style print and felt so light and airy. I loved that even though it seemed light enough to be sheer, it actually was not sheer. It was so pretty and I knew it would be perfect for my Gibson Girl Blouse.

Then, when I was looking through our Gibson Girl Blouse information, I saw a customer comment on a blog post that a great modification for the shirt would be to have the opening for the shirt at the shoulder and neck rather than the buttoned back. This made a lot of sense to me.

Originally, the blouse buttoned in the back because it signified one was wealthy enough to have a servant help you get dressed. And the front was not marred with buttons or fasteners. This was very popular at the turn of the 20th century. And even now, having a buttoned back can be helpful for dressing anyone with limited mobility. But for many, a closure in the back can be difficult if you aren't able to button it all the way up on your own. However, I have found that only the top 3-4 buttons need to be undone to be able to slip the blouse over your head. Then, you can often button those on your own. So a back-buttoned dress is not impossible to do yourself. But, it is not necessarily conveinent. If you want to read more about the history of the Gibson Girl, check out our post here.

In this post, I am going to show you how I added a buttoned shoulder/neck opening to this blouse, as well as a few potential tips and tricks for making the blouse.

Sizing

I made size Small. I am usually a size small to medium in our grade rule, but a small bust, so I just went with a straight size small. This blouse just needs to fit at your neck and bust. The armholes are a little narrow (because that was how they were worn in the early 1900s), so if you want more room, you might want to make adjustments there. I found them to have plenty of room for me (but this may have also been because of my fabric (read below)). The waist of the blouse is very large and you likely won't need to fit there. There are ties for each size, and I think you should make the ties a bit longer (maybe 6" longer) if you want to use them and you have a wider waist. I also think the ties should be a bit longer anyway, no matter what size your waist. I like a longer tie and hate a tiny bow with short tails.

I cut the blouse on the longer cutting lines and added 1/2" to the bottom front, back, and side panel. The traditional cutting line makes the back a bit shorter than the front in order to accommodate a bustled skirt. My waist is a little long, and I wanted my blouse to cover the top of my pants or skirt and be able to tuck in if I wanted, so the longer version with additional length was perfect for me. If I would have added the ties, I also would have lowered the line for the ties by 1/2". So check where your waist lands on the pattern and place your ties there, if you are using them.

Fabric

As I said above, I love this fabric. It is so pretty and light and moves beautifully. I used about 2.5 yards for this blouse. My go-to method for pre-treating any fabric I am going to use to make a garment is to launder it the way I would launder the garment I am going to make. As much as I love fine fabric, I need to be able to wash most of my clothes normally, so fine fabrics don't get treated as if they were precious in my house. So I prewashed this fabric and was a bit surprised at how crinkly it came out after the wash. I pressed it slightly, but the crinkles did not really come out and I decided I did not want to have to press this blouse every time I wanted to wear it. So I cut it as it was. I lost a few inches of width in the fabric and some length. Viscose shrink a lot when washed, which may have been what caused the crinkle -- the particular blend of viscose and silk.

It turns out that the blouse was more "blousy" with this fabric because it basically ended up having some stretch to it, as if it was a seersucker. This made this blouse even more comfortable with plenty of room in the armhole and at the wrist/lower arm.

Making the Neck/Shoulder Opening

I wanted the buttons to be on the left side of the neck. If you want the opening to button on the right side, just change the instructions below to the righthand side.

If you have the pattern, you will realize that the shoulder seam falls toward the back and is not actually at the top of the shoulder. To be able to button the blouse at the shoulder easily (and to look more typical), I needed to bring the shoulder seam on the left side forward to the top of the shoulder. Luckily the shoulder line is marked on the front yoke.

I needed to change the pattern pieces for the Neckband F, Front Yoke D, Back B, and Back Yoke E.

Neckband

First, needed to move the opening on Neckband F from the back of the neck to the left side of the neck. I traced the neckband to the notch for the left side of the neck and made that into a side. Then, I moved the Neckband to the other side (where the righthand back was) and added the rest of the neckband there (traced from notch 6 to the end to make a complete neckband. It helped to visualize where the center front is and to mark the new notches for center back. Note: We re-use our tracing fabric. It is sturdy stuff and we often cut it over and over. So, you can ignore most of the markings on the tracing fabric below (other than for this neckband).

Original Neckband F. You can see where I marked the new end at notch 6 on the right (the lefthand side of the collar) of the pattern piece. And a close-up below.

Neckband with the new side marked at notch 6. Note, we re-use tracing fabric, so other markings are from another pattern we were using before.

Now I moved the pattern piece to the other side of the neckband (to what was the original center back), and I added the section of the neckband after notch 6 to this side. The line where these two join will be about at the center back.

The new Neckband with center front (CF) marked, center back (with a line), and a notch for the right shoulder seam is shown above. The seam allowance was built into this piece so I didn't need to add a seam allowance. However, the notches (and CF) may be off by up to 1/2" when you use this collar. Just pay attention to where things should approximately line up. Also, note that this image makes it look like the new neckband is larger, but it is exactly the same size!

Center Back

The Back Yoke and Back can be cut on the fold rather than as two pieces, since there won't be an opening in the back. Fold the pattern pieces so that the center back line will be placed on the fold of fabric. Note, you only need to cut one Back and one Back Yoke (not two as the pattern pieces say) because you are cutting them on the fold.

Back Yoke E -- I am pointing to where the fold in the pattern piece should be made which will be placed on the fold of fabric (to cut one Back Yoke).

Back B above, and folded with at the center back below.

Cutting and Sewing Front Yoke and Back Yoke

The Front Yoke and the Back Yoke also have to be adjusted at the left side (or right side if you are making the opening on the right). I wanted to turn under 1/2" (13mm) twice to make the button placket on the left shoulder, and I needed the placket to overlap by 1/2". So I needed to add 1.5" (3.8cm) to the left side of the Front Yoke and Back Yoke.

However, since the shoulder seam falls one inch behind the shoulder, I only wanted to add 1.5" to the top of the shoulder. For the Front Yoke, I added 1.5" from the shoulder line to make the new cutting line for this pattern piece. You can see the extra paper I taped to the left side of the Front Yoke to make it longer.

Front Yoke pattern piece with adjustment

For the Back Yoke, I needed to add the extra inch that I took off from the Front Yoke (the distance from the shoulder line to the shoulder seamline) so it would go to the top of the shoulder, plus the 1.5" extra that I needed to make the button placket. You can see my adjusted pattern piece before I cut it out below.

I cut the Front Yoke as one piece with the left side longer than the right side (as I made in the step above). And I cut the Back Yoke with the center back on the fold. However, since I only needed the left side to be longer, I cut the right side of the Back Yoke down to the size of the original pattern piece.

Back Yoke cut on the fold. You can see the left side and the right side are longer than the original pattern piece. I needed to trim down the right side so that it would fit with the pattern. I only needed the left side to be longer for the shoulder button placket.

Trimmed the additional fabric off of the Back Yoke on the right side.

I then sewed the Front Yoke and Back Yoke to the blouse as instructed. When the directions call for sewing the front to the back and the shoulder seams, you will need to only sew the righthand side of the shirt together at the shoulders.

On the left hand side, I turned under 1/2" (13mm) at the shoulder and another 1/2" and then stitched close to the folded edge. I did this to the left side of the Front and Back Yokes.

close up of the folded edges on the left side of yokes

This image shows the yokes on the left side after they were folded over twice and stitched (the front is facing up).

After sewing the shoulder seams, I attached the Neckband. I added a strip of interfacing to my neckband (on the facing side) to give the fabric at the neck a little more body. I attached the Neckband the same way as the instructions indicated, however, the opening was at the left side of the neck, rather than the back. The center front and center back that we marked on the pattern piece earlier should line up. And, the side seams on the Neckband should line up with the finished edges of the left side opening. Mine did not, but that was mainly because my fabric had a weird stretch to it because of the crinkly aspect of the fabric. I probably should have staystitched it before doing anything, and that would have helped. However, I just trimmed the collar down to where it needed to be and continued on.

I slip-stitched the collar to the inside of the neck by hand. And once finished I pinned the left shoulder together, overlapping the folded edges of the button placket and 1/2" (13mm) of the neckband. This kept the shoulder together so that I could add the sleeves.

Neckband is added and is flush with the button placket on the shoulder.

close up of closed neckband and shoulder

Pinned shoulder and neckband on left side (armscye is on the righthand side in picture and neckband on lefthand side of picture).

I sewed on the sleeves, matching notches and seams as instructed. The sleeve is easy to adjust because there is a lot of gathering at the top.

close up of left side of shoulder with blouse on a woman

I tested the blouse to show how the opening looked before buttons were added. This is the left side of the blouse with the shoulder and neck placket open.

Close up of the blouse left shoulder with a woman wearing it.

You can see where it will close when the buttons are added.

Once I put in the sleeves, I just needed to add buttons and buttonholes to the left shoulder and neck, and hem the shirt.

Close up of a woman wearing a floral blouse, view of left shoulder with buttons

I added 1/2" mother-of-pearl buttons. I only had 4 (2 pair) and they did not match, but they were the same size and only on close inspection would anyone see they didn't match. So I alternated the buttons so that it was an intentional choice to use mismatched buttons. You could use smaller buttons, but I would not go larger than 1/2". If using smaller buttons, you may want to add more buttons. Keep the buttons and buttonholes evenly spaced. I added the buttons to the front of the shoulder and the buttonholes on the back. You could do the reverse, especially if you wanted your "opening" face the back rather than the front. Be sure to set up the overlap of the front and back yoke as you want it when you pin them together before the sleeve is added.

Woman wearing a dark floral blouse and jeans with left side toward camera

I love this blouse! It is so comfortable, light, and airy. It is also beautiful and exactly what I was envisioning. I am glad I made the shoulder opening (and I love the pretty buttons there). I also find that I only need to unbutton 2 buttons to get the blouse over my head (this may not be true of everyone).

Another modification I made was not adding the waist ties. At first, I left them off to see if I liked the blouse billowy. If I wanted a cinch, I thought I could add them later, which I still could, but I did not want to. So I left them off entirely.

Woman standing in front of brick wall wearing a dark floral blouse and jeans

Woman standing in front of brick wall wearing a dark floral blouse and jeans. Back is to camera

No buttons in the back!

3 Responses

Karin Larson

February 12, 2025

Thank you for sharing.

Mary Elisabeth Birenbaum

February 11, 2025

A general suggestion: When you photograph a garment constructed in a busy or very dark fabric, it’s difficult to see the how the garment is shaped – i.e. darts, etc. Can you show the models in more visible fabrics? The Gibson Girl Blouse is an example. The Gibson Girl Resources is a good example of what I mean. Had I looked no further, I would have just ignored the pattern…