A Difficult Construction

The rather Victorian-looking La Semaine de Suzette 1907, issue 20-21, Summer Dress has a devilish construction.  One difficulty is that the arm-hole opening for the balloon sleeve is hardly big enough to put two fingers inside it.  It was a challenge to create a workable pattern for Bleuette dressmakers to sew this dress and keep their sanity at the same time.  It's hard to imagine any French youngster being able to bring this dress off by themselves.

I made the original first to see how it worked.  It didn't turn out perfectly, I admit, but I discovered the pitfalls, and had an idea how to simplify the construction.

To solve the problem, without sacrificing too much of the original design, I made a shaped bodice based on the original but with a conventional armhole.

It's a contemporary version that any seamstress could sew.  

Better to simplify the pattern to encourage others to try it, than have all but a few pass this dress by.