MCCalls 6076, Yasmine Inspired

Yasmine is an incredible designer who lives in Tibet. Nearly every garment she designs utilizes major surface design. I could own or enjoy making everything I see on her site. She has a white linen shirt that really caught my imagination. The picture is locked  but you can see the image here in the summer collection. I knew I could do these tucks but at this time of year I am not up to a white linen shirt. I have stash of shirtings and decided on a black and white, read gray, oxford cloth. Oxford cloth always has a white weft. The warp thread determines the color, or maybe I have that backwards. Because the weaving is so fine you end up seeing a third color, in this case, a soft grey.

 

For a pattern I decided on this McCalls 6076.  Like the original there are shoulder princess seams, but you can see the collar differs. I have an idea for that. I also like, as usual, the 3/4 sleeves, flattering to anybody. Cuffs bug the crapola out of me so you will see almost every top I make is 3/4 length.

I had to figure a few things out before planning out and stitching the tucks. I wasn't sure what color thread to use or even what type. Did I want to  try more rayon? And how would red look? I did my usual sample effort and decided on simple white thread for the tucks. I also had to experiment on how to work the tucks that were directly on the princess seam lines. They actually worked out beautifully just stitching down the center of the seam. Sometimes I am trying so hard to complicate things! You can see I used a double needle and a 5 groove pintuck foot.

The tucks are corded with pearl cotton.On my machine, a Pfaff, you can see there is a place to put your cord so it is perfectly lined up as the tuck stitches. I also have a "cording tongue, a tiny little thing that holds the tuck up nice and tall while you stitch. I always forget to use that! I use the double needle, tighten the tension bigtime, and use the pearl cotton and the tucks get dimension. You don't ever want a flat tuck. What's the point? 

So this afternoon I got the back bodice tucks done and now it will be on to the front. They are being stitched in the flat. Whenever I do princess seams I use one inch SA to have some room to fit. Another reason I did the samples was to figure out what the amount of takeup was on the tucks compared to the flat pattern. It was actually barely a 1/4 inch per section. So that with the wide SA caused me to do nothing else to accommodate for the tucked fabric. So far its looking pretty good. I will be shaping the hem as well, as in the designer original. Too bad I didn't think of this when PR ran the knockoff contest.

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Glad you all liked the wool bag. It was a VERY fun project. There will be more bags coming soon  as I get ready for the holidays. Once in a while I get a comment about my having so many bags. I don't. I have my few favorites but most are given away, either as gifts, thank yous, or for barter. So these are what I call figment bags, sewn for people who are only figments of my imagination at this point. Its rare I make a bag specific to the eventual owner, 'cept moi!...Bunny