Another Mexican Peasant Blouse/Dress

This dress is very different from the older blouse.  The seams are unfinished, the yoke is one piece, the fabric is different, and there are no gussets.  It is very comfortable to wear and would be easy to reproduce since most of the pieces are rectangles, squares, or variations of squares.

The body portion is attached to the yoke with tucks.  This gives a slimmer line and is certainly easier to sew.  The yoke is a single layer with a double turnunder at the neck edge which is  held down by the crochet trim.

All measurements in the diagrams are WITHOUT SEAM ALLOWANCES, including the neckline turnunder.  These measurements would have to be added when fabric is cut out.

Following are closeups of the diagram for easier reading:

The sleeve length (from top of sleeve to bottom of sleeve)  is 5 1/4″ without seam allowances and hem allowances.  I usually add 5/8″ for the hem, with a 1/4″ narrow turnunder followed by a 3/8″ hem.

The neckline is the same depth in the back as it is in the front.  The shoulder length (not counting the sleeve) is 6″.

The tucks were spaced about 1 1/2″ apart, measured out from the center tucks.  The tucks had a variable depth of from 3/4″ to 1/2″ (meaning that if you stuck a ruler into the tuck, that is what it would measure, but twice that length of fabric is actually tucked up).  Nothing seemed very exact.  There were 6 tucks in all, ending 3 3/4″ from the side/armhole seam.

The dress has side slits that measure 9″ long on both sides of the bottom width.  The dress length is pretty long, hitting me below mid-calf, but I am not a tall person.

You wouldn’t have to have good embroidery skills to produce a beautiful Mexican Peasant Blouse or Dress, because you could use commercial trims available in any fabric store.  You could combine trims with machine decorative stitches to make a wide trim on the yoke and sleeve tops.  If you are lucky enough to own an embroidery machine, you could use that, of course. Since the yoke is basically a square with a hole cut out of it, you could use quilt piecing to decorate it too, and of course, applique would be gorgeous.