Finally! Life has been so busy since we last spoke. Thank you for your patience, dear readers. I just got my last Prom Princess out the door and she was so beautiful, as they all were. There were some lovely Mother Of the Bride/Grooms as well, all beauties. Our time apart has also seen a vacation with my daughter all the way out to Colorado that was utterly fabulous and that filled me with memories, including the graduation and launch of my grandson from college, so proud. He has secured his dream job and we are just beaming for him. Lots of family business in between including mastering a new printer and computer. Syncing that with my camera and editing software took some time. You know how it is. Eventually I got back to sewing and finishing this shirt, McCalls 8001. That was a journey and eventually a fun sew. It is so comfortable to wear and I really like it despite the rocky beginnings to our relationship!
I thought it might be a little too Jimmy Buffet but with heirloom entredeux trim things really toned down and it brought it into a likeable space for me.
There were beautiful, directional plants going north and south. Then, there were graduating colors, shading from dark to light, navy to pale yellow, from East to West, the easiest way to explain this. My idea was to have the plants point north on my bodice and the colors mirror imaged across the garment. After three days of painstaking play, a night's sleep gave me the answer. I decided to totally ignore the direction of the plants, which you can see are very busy and just concern myself with balancing my colors. This worked to a point. The only place I had to "cheat" was in the upper front bodice. To win this argument, I cut those pieces on the bias and then got them to match, at least with color. The fact that it is bias has not affected the hang or wear or look of the drape of the garment. You can read all about the fabric issues in the previous post.
This really was no different than any other button down shirt. It has a collar stand and a button band. The hem is folded and therefore a double layer, giving the shirt some nice weight at the bottom. The entredeux trim you see criss crossing the garment was originally part of a much wider piece of an eyelet batiste border. The entredeux strip was cut from the border keeping a half inch border with the entredeaux. It was then sewn to the seam line of the shirt with entredeux lining up with the seam and using a straight stitch and fine thread. I stitched right up to the entredeux. That was then trimmed down to an 1/8th inch seam which was zigzagged thru the holes and around the 1/8th inch of seam, basically rolling the seam to the trim, classic trim to fabric heirloom sewing. Size 60 weight thread was used. The rolled seam was pressed toward the garment. On the sleeves I kept the full batiste embroidered edge and did the same process making for a longer trim finish.
I did not want the sleeve just being big and decided to pull it up into a couple of tucks for more interest. I just stitched the tucks down with the machine. I didn't have any more green buttons and adding mother of pearl white just wouldn't work, at least for me. I like the interest of the tucked sleeve and the feminine touch it brings.
Always so nice to see a post from you. This turned out so nicely. And good eye on the 17 year old. What a nice compliment. This might be the perfect top for an outdoor wedding I have to attend in August. So I ordered the pattern. Jean
ReplyDeleteThank you. I will guarantee that it will make for a comfortable wedding outfit. It would be lovely in a drapier fabric with those sleeves with the flounces.
DeleteThankyou Bunny for giving fabulous quilting cotton a commendation. I think it is a wonderful fabric to make clothes, especially if we stick to the good designers who use reliable base stock. My husband has a dozen incredible shirts made from quilting fabrics, about half by me! I love this it's such an eye pleaser! And I am delighted and not surprised that it is a delight in hot weather.
ReplyDeleteWowza! that is a high-end boutique shirt right there! I wonder if Hobby Lobby might have this one in stock...they're the only fabric game in town now...
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