Last Spring, I wrote a post about what the pattern may have looked like for the smock Claudette Colbert was wearing in the movie, “No Time For Love”. The smock, designed by my favorite Hollywood Designer, Irene Lentz Gibbons seems to be a favorite of hers for working.

Naturally, it was my first choice to make a pattern of.

This is the first iteration. I used the colonial print weaver’s cloth that I printed (wow – it’s been that long) in July of 2006. Altho, a heavier weight than what appears to be the lightweight silk, Irene used for hers (I believe Claudette’s is a lightweight cotton), I wanted to see how the print size worked out for proportioning besides, it was handy.

Here are images of the test smock pattern run:

Front View: Buttons are from my husband’s grandmother’s sewing box. She had 5 lt blues and 5 pinks. I used pink at the top and blues for the other 5.

Back View

Another back view

Cuff Side View: I wanted some glitz, so what else, but some glitz brand rhinestone buttons. The original sleeves were a regular button cuff long sleeve. I hate rolling up sleeves, so I made 3/4′s and added angled cuffs with piping and buttons.

Inside seams. I don’t like lined yokes because they are restrictive. I added the curved facing (it seems there was one in Irene’s smock also) and hong kong’d the back yoke seam. The rest is just serged.

Armpit view: You can see where the piping – pipes up. That will change in the next draft.

Here are pictures of the pattern pieces (with changes noted in colors, that were made during sewing on the test garment):



Back facing pattern piece



Modified back and collar pieces. Collar shortened along the red line and waistline lowered an inch on the back.



Modified collar angle.



Modified Front. Changed the raglan edge draft to curve over the pectorals and lowered the armscye and collar edges.



Modified Sleeve reflects changes for raglan draft and added a small seam allowance at center shoulder to avoid dart pucker.



Yoke and cuff. No changes.



Modified Pocket and Facing piece: In the original, it seems that pocket and facing is a one piece pocket cut, with an additional pocket facing cut and sewn. The top is folded down onto the pocket. I forgot that part while cutting, so I added piping and treated it as one big patch pocket. That will change in the next pattern iteration.

The steps:

I started the pattern using a basic block that fit me.

I cut 3 slits from the bottom up to the shoulder on each side of the front and back pieces for gores. The gores don’t work out so well on this heavier fabric, so I’ll make a pattern just for a heavier weight fabric with less gorey details.

A standard raglan draft came too high on the collar bone and armscye, so I lowered them as noted on the pattern pieces above. I also cut in the neckline about a 1/2 ” from each shoulder down to the front – evening to the center back pivot.

The raglan draft also, did not work for the shoulder of the sleeve (on this draft anyway). I ended up cutting that portion seperate and sewing it back to get the angle right on the front raglan. Hence, the sleeve cap became a regular draft. I’ll be changing it back to a raglan draft as noted on the changes on the pattern pieces above. I also will be dropping the armscye abt. a 1/2″ and blending the piping across so that I don’t get that upshot into the armpit.

Originally, I had a pattern piece going from one sleeve, across the back to the other sleeve. Unless Irene had access to some really wide yardage, I don’t see that this was possible. I’ve come to believe there is a seperate back yoke. So, I drafted a back yoke and cut the sleeves to a set-in. However, I’m not going to give up on the intergrated raglan. That, I believe, was there.

As all creative endeavours go, I ran out of piping. Originally it was going to all be navy. I had red, so I used it (after all it’s a colonial print, why not throw in a little patriotism). I’m wondering if Irene had couched in the trim to resemble a raglan, but wasn’t actually.

My piping is at the seams, whereas on Irene’s, noticeable at the collar, is laid within a 1/4 above the seams. I can’t help but wonder if that is really a raglan draft as the folds of the fabric follow down from the raglan to the bodice. I won’t know until I make several more iterations in different fabrics, altho, I suspect it was a true raglan based on her own smocks she wore, with just an offset collar trim.

The final change to be made is to lower the length a few inches to mid thigh so the pockets are proportioned better. There wasn’t enough fabric to lower it this time.

I haven’t seen a smock from this era with raglan sleeves and a back yoke together. A bit reminiscent of a cheesemaker’s smock I saw once. Most smock patterns of the era are either curved half circle yokes, or cut straight across as seperate front and back yokes. It’s easy to see why Irene loved the raglan sleeve. All in all – it was a fun excercise and it only gets better from here.