The Many Colors Blocked Shirt

 


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. 

Pattern:

This is McCalls 8001, a full, boxy button down with a wide hem band and sleeve options.

 I love wide hem bands, who knows why. Fabrics recommended are all  drapey, as the pics show, except for a recommendation of poplin. I'd say my beautiful quilting cotton was covered. The pattern is definitely not hard to sew, as is, but introducing my trim also introduced heirloom techniques to use it properly. There is tremendous ease in the pattern so would recommend flat pattern measuring before deciding which size to cut. I cut the smallest size, XS, 4-6,  which has a finished bust measurement of 41 3/4 inches. I did no width adjustments and when adding my trims I made sure they kept the garment at the intended widths and did not add any additional ease. I would definitely recommend the pattern. It is not hard to sew, particularly if you have sewn a button down shirt before. I did adjust the length by shortening  the bodice a couple inches, partly for length and party to accomodate how much fabric I had in the blue color for the hem band.  While the garment is large and has a lot of fabric, the wide hem band on the fold gives weight that keeps it from having a floating away effect. 

Fabric:

This was the interesting part, and what a challenge! 

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. 

Construction:

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. 

The back has a yoke which was done Burrito style. 

Care had to be taken with the measurements for the back pleat and the trim. I might have gathered this area but I do try to follow the pattern on the first go round. 

In Conclusion:

I definitely would recommend this pattern. I have worn it and had a big surprise. I was not expecting the comfort this structured pattern nor this quilting cotton provided. One day was particularly warm and this top was very comfortable to wear. There was no clinging anywhere and no skin exposed either. When I am dressing for heat, I generally am  not a one who grabs for a tank top. Give me something loose and/or flowey any day. I like the arm  coverage here and yet still have comfort. It is an eye catcher and the comments flowed,  all from men, even young ones! It's one thing to garner a compliment from a fellow sewist but quite another to have a 17 year old boy ring up your grocery order and then tell you "I really like your shirt. It's very pretty." Made my day!  

Happy Sewing!................................Bunny