The Top of Many Colors Part One

Yesterday I spent 7 glorious hours working on the Top of Many Colors. I made my muslin first. Let's get a few things out there about muslin making. First, it is to establish fit, and maybe, just maybe, pocket placement and such, but really the focus is fit and not much else.  Because you are making the muslin all about the fit, it doesn't need collars, facings, buttons, zippers and other extraneous details. So don't do them. Pin it shut, don't do a zip! Don't stitch a hem, just pin. For this muslin, I did a front and a back, baboom! The whole process took way less than an hour and when it was complete I knew the length I wanted and the neckline changes, for the most part. I made my pattern and away I went. I did not muslin my sleeve, but simply measured from my shoulder bone to where I wanted the sleeve to end. When I tried on the muslin I measured where on the muslin that shoulder bone would be and figured the length from there. I proceeded to put the front and back of the top together. My muslin also told me that the neckline would fit over my head, a big concern. Now I knew I didn't need any closure and my top just got a bit quicker to make.

The next challenge was figuring out how to finish the neckline as well as how far I wanted to go with a lining. I definitely wanted some sort of lining but really wanted to keep it light. In her latest post here, Tany of Couture and Tricot makes a beautiful rendition of the latest pattern from BCN - Paco Peralta.  Her lining treatment really inspired me and I sort of replicated it here in my own fashion. Tany lined her top but simply left the sleeves unlined and the armholes beautifully bound and unattached.. The link will show you how she did that. I am going to do similar. The lining will be connected at the neck, I think, understitched, and hang freely in the bodice with thread chains in the side seams to keep everything secure. The armscye and hem will be finished with a shell stitched finish, a technique often used in heirloom sewing and great on lingerie. Here is a pic of the lining all cut and ready to go.  I've been using clips for a while but just started using them for patterns and really like them for that.

You've hear me many times talk about making samples. If there ever was a case for sampling, it is the shell stitch in combo with the poly anti static lining. Here you can see my beginning attempts. They are horrid, I agree. But, with sampling you keep playing until you get it right and eventually I did.

You can see some rows just aren't doing a "shell" effect. That is the work of the tension and to make this work I used a tension setting of 8. Other rows have me fiddling with width and length, just nasty, but I kept at it. I  eventually got it and when I did, I tried it out with matching fine machine embroidery thread as used in heirloom machine sewing.

You can see the pretty little shell effect in the row the arrow and the scissors are pointing to. It has a stitch width of 4.0, a stitch length of 1.5 and a tension setting of 8. The fine thread disappears into the fabric so prettily. The shoulder seam of the lining will be sewn  first. Then the armscyes  will be the shell stitched and once those are stitched the side seams will get a French seam. Last but not least the hem edge will get the shell stitch treatment, all a light and lovely secret hiding under the top.

My next session will have me making the lining, connecting it to the neckline and re-cutting the neckline a bit for a more attractive curve. The back neckline is very horizontal and needs a bit more shaping, IMO. I have really been enjoying this project and sharing it with you! I bet we all have lots of 1/4 and half yard pieces we could put to good use this way!............Bunny

Paco's shirt, Vogue 1526, completed!

This is a WONDERFUL design and pattern by new Vogue Designer, Paco Peralta of Barcelona, Spain. Many of us have followed Paco for some years and are thrilled he is now collaborating with Vogue. I have no affiliation here but I am so impressed with this pattern, Vogue 1526. I did take a couple small liberties with his design and will explain that further. This was not done because the pattern needed any improvement, far from it. I just tried to make it do things for my particular fabics.

Let's get started and then I want to comment on plaids, specifically.

Pattern:

Vogue 1526, designed by Paco Peralta. The pattern consists of a lined  jacket with short sleeves and assymetrical collar, a cuffed shirt with dropped shoulders, asymmetrical collar and off angled pocket. Pants are also included in the pattern and I look forward to making those as well. I had no concerns with this shirt other than making it work with a plaid and also lining it. I will wear this a lot and it is perfect for our winter climate.

The directions were divine. You start with a cut on facing, folded and instructed to "sew invisibly" along the long edge, my kind of pattern and directions! In step 2 there is very clear instruction for a unique inseam buttonhole at the very top of the shirt, easy peasy. As the pattern progresses, I found no areas or issues that were not clear and easy to execute. This shirt has details that boost it up to a fine garment yet the directions are clearly written and drawn.

Fabric:

The shirt is made with 100 % cotton flannel in plaid. It was a refreshing change from the dark plaids seen so much around these parts and I felt the lavender and cream gave it a more feminine vibe.

The lining is a very thin poly silky, actually a bit lighter than most linings I considered. By using it on the wrong side the finish was duller and more true to the look of silk.

For interfacing, I used a woven fusible, not sure of where it came from so won't guess.

Construction:

This is where the fun began! and where I veered a bit from Paco's design. My challenge was to make it work with the plaid and I think I did. Let's talk about that first.

Thoughts on using the plaid:

• You have to pick your battles with plaids. You also can make your life much easier with an "even" plaid. The fabric used here  is an even plaid. Each unit of plaid is equidisant and exactly like the other units that surround it. Using an even plaid is highly suggested for your first plaid effort. This PDF has a lot of great info on this. I also found Claire Shaeffer's Fabric Guide to have the best and most information out there. 
• The hem on this shirt is curved and uneven a look I think is flattering for those of us who are short. A decision was made to have  mostly the cream part of the blocks meet the hem. Why? Because  plaid is a very straight line and the shirt hem is curved. Trust me on this one. Uneven hem - don't end it on a bar. 
• Now that the length of the plaid was decided on I need to decide how it would work on the width. I decided to have the cream part of the blocks be at center front. I like the effect. It looks simple enough to line up. Don't kid youself. This was the hardest part of the whole project. This had yet to be cut and I knew that I had a folded cut on facing. And I had to have it match. It was challenging, made me think very hard, but eventually I got it. You can see how I managed it in this post. 
• My length and width are now set. Did you see the half dolman sleeves? They will not match, Don't even think about matching this perfectly. With plaid matching, you have to go for the obvious. Since I am short, maybe lots of people will see the tops of my shoulders but in reality, I don't think it is a focal point like center front and back. So, don't worry about it. 
• Now I had to match the lower sleeve and then its cuff. After A LOT of thinking, I walked away, came back and decided to just cut it on the bias. I centered the bias diamonds with the shoulder seam. I didn't seam it on bars but with mostly the cream centers meeting the dolman edge, the less to emphazise that it isn't matching and never will. 
• For the cuffs I went back to the straight of grain, matching bars with the corner of the plaid which you see in the pic in the woods. 
• Hours can go into placing plaids. Using allover prints or solids eliminates that and the shirt should go much faster than mine did. 
• Bottom line: Straight edges get bars. Curved edges get the cream blocks. Problems get the bias. Placement is important even if you don't match and requires thought. 
• This all needs to be figured out before cutting the first seam. 

With that out of the way. let's get to my next change. This shirt is not lined and that is fine. But a cotton flannel sticks to your clothes and it's cold up here. I had to have a lining with this. I decided on one of my favorite techniques, flat lining which finishes the seams with a Hong Kong finish and lines the garment at the same time. There are challenges with this as it works best on vertical seams. What to do with the underarm curve of the upper sleeve?

I did two lines of stitching in that area, trimmed back to the second stitching and zigzagged the edge. The seam allowances were cut on the bias  and folded under and stitched to make a clean edge as you see above. 

For the hem I faced the area with a bias strip of lining and catchstitched it to the lining. 

The plaid also made me deal with the collar a bit differently. I hope Paco approves. I like it. His collar is an asymmetrical design. I like it but I wanted my plaids to flow evenly where I could and to be symmetrical. I also had planned to used the buttons on the bars. This meant that I did not use his wonderful top buttonhole. I did make it anyway and it's one of those special little secrets just I know about, hiding in the seam! Making the collar symmetrical and lowering the buttonhole causes the collar to open evenly. I LOOOOOVE this collar. I got many compliments on this shirt when I wore it and more on the collar. It has such a pretty roll line and it is so nice and deep. 

 Here is that awesome little buttonhole that makes an asymmetrical collar with little effort, beautiful detail and typical Paco. 

If you have read me for a while, you may remember that I really don't care for long sleeves or any fabric around my wrists. My plan from the start was to fold back these lovely, deep cuffs and that worked well. You can see them on me all folded back but here is what they look like otherwise. 

Parting shots: When I make another I may take a tiny bit of length out of the back waist area. My issue is one of width,  a narrow back and wide hips. I always have this space. I can fit it away but then I have a different look to the garment. I don't want a fitted shirt here. I like the ease exactly as Paco designed it. I flat pattern measured the pattern and found there was substantial ease in a size six to not make any further adjustments. The dropped dolman sleeves also added to the ease of fitting. Since I planned to roll back the cuffs from the get go, they may have been long for me othewise. Other than that I am really pleased with my fit and it was with little effort. 

In conclusion:  I will definitely make this again. With Paco's clear instructions and the beautiful simplicity of the design it would be fine for an advanced beginner if done in a solid fabric and following his directions. While this is a couture pattern, this is doable by those who maybe have never used a couture Vogue pattern. I highly recommend. The design is so versatile and would be stunning in a white linen or pique. A beautiful look for dressier winter wear with jeans would be in  a washed velvet, yum. Thank you, Paco, for a beautiful design!........Bunny

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for some reason the crop didn't work in my editing software tonight. Hopefully it will rectify with shutting down the computer. I will be back to fix it in that case. And, oh, did you notice the winning button? It is the lighter ringed buttons. I really appreciated all your opinions on that. Thanks to all of you.....Bunny

Vogue 1526, Paco's shirt!

I am so thrilled to make this Paco Peralta design, Vogue 1526. I, and many other long time bloggers have been following Paco's blog, career, Pinterest, etc for quite some time. I am thrilled he is now one of Vogue's designers and I really look forward to his future work. Paco's designs are WEARABLE. They are not complicated, yet have couture touches that are manageable, like the buttonhole slit in the top of this shirt. They are very polished.

My fabric is purchased and I can't wait to get going. Some of you may have seen Tany of Couture and Tricot's version, a wondeful white shirt much like above. But it's not a white shirt time of year up here in the North Country and I decided to take a bit different tack with my efforts.

I live in the cold and flannel shirts are standard issue, lined flannel shirts, far more practical, are even more common. My plan is to make a lined flannel shirt with Paco's design. I have probably most sewing books written in the past thirty years and decided I needed to study up and refresh on working with plaids. I went through my books and found the best information in the Vogue Sewing Book and Claire Shaeffer's Fabric Guide. Vogue had a brief couple of paragraphs but Claire's book had pages of info. I studied balanced plaids, unbalanced plaids, even plaids and uneven plaids. Claire even had info on uneven balanced plaids and even unbalanced plaids, etc. Yikes!  I doubt you could find more plaid info anywhere else. I studied Claire's book and feel ready to go. I know from Claire that much will not match, something we also learned in the classes I've taken from her. The important parts are the center front and back and the sleeves. The rest you are downright lucky if it looks good, but that is OK per Claire. 

The other thing I have decided to do is to flat line the shirt, all but collar and cuffs. This will provide warmth and stability to the shirt. After looking at many linings I decided on another blouse fabric, a very thin poly with shiny motifs. Well, I didn't like those and will be using it on the wrong side as you see in the pic above. It has much more of a silk look this way as well. All vertical seams will be flat lined. You can find information on this above in the Tutorial pages. Any questions, just ask. Non vertical seams will have the felled seams as per the pattern. The hem will be a challenge but I think I have it worked out. Does anyone else wake up in the middle of the night and deal with how to incorporate changes from the pattern being used? and worrying if they will work? I do this a lot and by the time I start cutting I have it all worked out. I always have fingers crossed. So if you like the exact way Paco designed this shirt, check out Tany's blog.His design is amazing and her results beautiful. I will be doing this more casual look and I hope he approves. 

Did you notice how I chose a more femine color scheme? I am happy with that. I am surrounded with classic plaid designs up here and really like this different one. It is an even plaid and that will help a lot. I look forward to sharing this process with you. 

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Thank you, everyone, for the lovely comments on my apron dress. It is always appreciated as are all your comments. Happy New Year..................Bunny