Making a Blouse for a Kyjov Kroj

When I started the blouse for the Kyjov kroj I didn't know what I was getting myself in to. I went to great lengths to make it as close to the authentic blouse that I could. I took the authentic blouse to a copier and made a copy of all of the embroidery. I used this to trace the design to the fabric with tracing paper. Since I did not have a pattern I chose this McCalls's pattern. What I was looking for, was a blouse that had a simple collar and full sleeves. As you can tell, the sleeves on the pattern are not near as full as the authentic ones so I cut the sleeve pattern in half and added more paper to give it the needed fullness.

This blouse took over 500 hours to complete but I am very proud of the finished product. The Kyjov kroj is one of the most beautiful of the Czech costumes.

Sarah is pictured in her new kroj with Ashley Sulak, 2008 Miss Texas Czech-Slovak Queen and Marianne Beran, 2007 Miss Texas Czech-Slovak Queen. Ashley is wearing the kroj that Sarah wore as queen and this is the kroj that I tried to reproduce. Marianne Beran is also wearing an authentic kroj. You will notice that Sarah is not wearing the scarf on the shoulders...I am still working on that piece.