Vintage Net Blouse

This vintage blouse is made from a netting embellished with eyelets and a lovely lace edging.  It is in remarkably good shape for its age, likely in the 1920s or 30s.  So delicate and so feminine.

My repair work on this entailed repairing a hole at the edge of one armhole.  I backed and supported the area with a piece of tulle.

When I choose threads for this kind of work, I almost always go with the darker of my options.  The darker color is much more likely to blend in as a shadowy tint, rather than standing out like little sparks of highlights.

I made running stitches along the lace edge, and then around the patch, a good distance outside the tiny snags.  The stitches are a bit less than 1/4".  Not too small to tear the old fabric, but small enough to not snag when the eventual new owner of this blouse puts it on.

Then, I whip stitched the raw, broken edges of the holes to the tulle.  I angled the needle in and under as I went, creating a bit of a rolled edge and tucking in all the open ends.

Then I carefully, oh-so carefully, trimmed the excess tulle away from the back, leaving about 1/4" outside the stitching.  Cutting right at the stitching would open up the holes in the netting, and the patch would come right off.

Here is the finished look.

Another super find by my friend Julia at Basya Berkman Vintage Fashions!

I did some research into sewing machine history while trying to help Julia date this blouse.  You can read the results of my research here.