Style Arc Courtney Top from Leftovers

The Style Arc Courtney Top is a great pattern for trying out some colour blocking. I was rummaging through my fabric stash looking for something suitable, when I came across the left over floral cotton/linen blend from this dress and the white linen left overs from this shirt. I had just enough of both the fabrics to combine the two and create this top.

Style Arc Courtney Top

  
This top has some lovely design features and was fairly quick and relatively easy to construct. There are no darts or closures to worry about and the fit is meant to be loose, so there are no fitting issues to deal with either.

I love the combination of the plain and the busy fabrics. I think the white tones down the busy print and the combination has worked well. I am wearing it here with my purple Colette Mabel skirt which tones in well with the purple flowers in the floral print.

Even in this cotton/linen blend fabric, the shape of the blouse is not too boxy or shapeless. I love the interesting detail that the back yoke and gathers give to the back. I cut a size 12 and made it up with out any alteration to the pattern. It was drafted beautifully and went together easily.

I top stitched all the seams, except the side seams. I like the extra detail it adds to the top and it also keeps the seam allowances lying nice and flat. The arm bands are designed to be turned up like a cuff, but I preferred them left like this. The white arm bands help tie in the front panel and give a nice balance to the garment.

The raw edge at the hem was over locked and turned up and secured with a top stitch. I wanted to preserve as much length as possible. If I was to make this again I would lengthen it a couple of centimetres, especially if I planned to wear it with pants, rather than a skirt. I have a long body and I find a longer top suits my figure better.

The neckband is a length of bias cut linen stitched to the neckline and then cover stitched to finish it off. I have still got my L plates on with my cover stitch machine, but I was pretty pleased with how this turned out. A little bit wobbly on one shoulder, but not too bad.

I am quite pleased with my Courtney Top and very pleased that I was able to create it out of some left over fabrics too. I can see a few more of these in my wardrobe soon.

Happy Sewing

Jean

Style Arc Lu Lu Tunic in Hot Pink Linen

Style Arc Lu Lu Tunic

The Style Arc Lu Lu Tunic has been languishing in my pattern stash for quite a while. I don't know why it has taken so long to get around to sewing this up. Now that I have made it I can say that I am quite pleased with how it turned out. I used this light weight linen purchased from Tessuti at Surry Hills about a year ago, during my first and only visit to this lovely fabric shop.

Style Arc Lu Lu Tunic

I cut my usual size 12 in Style Arc which worked out fine. I did lengthen the bodice by 5cm, which I later removed as it turned out way too long (This turned out to be much harder than it should have been). The pattern was perfect as it was. I did make a couple of other changes to simplify the construction process: The back bodice was cut on the fold and the back slit and button and loop closure were eliminated. The neckline opening is quite big enough to get the top on and off without any trouble.

The other change I made was to construct the neckband and sleeve bands as instructed, however I attached them simply by overlocking both the raw edges to the openings which worked beautifully. As the bands are 2cm wide there is plenty of width to hide the overlocking. Much less fiddly than attaching each layer separately and stitching in the ditch, as instructed.

To be honest, I could not make head nor tail of the instructions for the band at the bottom of the bodice. I found the written instructions and the instructions on the pattern pieces to be contradictory and I really had to scratch my head for a while. I ended up deciding to cut a pair of both the front and back bands and then treated them the same way as the sleeve and neckline bands. I sandwiched them between the bodice and lower skirt sections and overlocked all the layers in one go. Sounds simple if you do it correctly. Unfortunately I attached the band inside out so the the side with the under stitching (flat stitching) showed. Out came the seam ripper. All turned out well the second time.

Pocket and band details

The mitred corners on the skirt pieces were very well drafted and came together very well. I wore my new tunic to work the day after I completed it with my purple ponte Colette Mabel skirt, but it kept getting caught up on my hips and just felt too long. So...out came the seam ripper again, and I removed the skirt and the waist band and trimmed off 4cm of length from the bottom of the bodice. I then reattached the waistband and the skirt pieces back to front. The skirt was longer at the front...not a good look. So out came the seam ripper again.

I think I made the construction of this tunic much harder than it needed to be...anyway I'm sure the next one will go together without any silly mistakes.

Happy Sewing

White Linen Shirt

After promising my dear husband that I would make him another handmade shirt months ago, I have finally delivered.

Last March, my ever patient husband took me on a fabric shopping trip during a visit to Sydney. I got to visit Tessuti at Surry Hills which was amazing...such beautiful fabrics. I could have spent hours there, but this was only a quick trip. I did manage to purchase a couple of pieces of lovely 100% linen and one of them has been made into this shirt.

I based this shirt on McCalls 6044 which I have made twice before here and here. You can find all the construction details and pattern alterations in these previous posts so I won't go over them in detail again here.

For this version, I only added one pocket at Greg's request. This simplified things as I didn't have to worry about matching the placement to the other side. Also, using a solid colour meant no pattern matching. This shirt was probably a lot easier to sew than my first two versions because of this and the fabric was a dream to press and sew.

I followed The Classic Tailored Shirt by Pam Howard on Craftsy, as I did with my previous shirts. This is a great resource and I can't recommend this class enough. I added a tower placket that is not included in the pattern using this tutorial. I love this detail on a man's shirt. Greg loves wearing his sleeves rolled up so I lengthened the tower placket to make it easier for him to roll up the sleeves.

I had all intentions of sewing button holes and buttons on this shirt, but I couldn't find any buttons I was happy with locally. Greg is a big fan of press studs and I had these "Snaps" from Snapsource in the stash. At first I didn't like the idea of using snaps on a linen shirt but after some convincing from Greg, the idea grew on me. These ones are called white marble and I think they go quite nicely with the casual rumpled vibe of the linen fabric.

There is something so satisfying in sewing a man's shirt. I love the neat finish that flat felled seams produce, both on the outside and the inside. I spent a couple of weeks sewing this shirt in short bursts in the evenings after work and I managed to get it finished just in time for his birthday. I gave it a wash to remove the pink pencil marks so it was presentable for the occasion, but to my horror the interfaced areas went all bubbly and crinkled looking. I thought it was ruined, but after getting over the initial disappointment I have decided it doesn't look too bad with the wrinkly nature of the linen and it is wearable. Greg didn't seem concerned about it.

I have learned my lesson though. No more cheap and nasty interfacing for me. I have explored Fashion Sewing Supply and their interfacing products online. Has any one else in Australia bought interfacing from this supplier? I would appreciate any feedback or any suggestions for a more local suppler of decent interfacing. It is so heart breaking to have all your hard work ruined by inferior products.

I couldn't get a smile out of him for these photos. We were out in our front garden and he was worried someone might see him. Oh the trials and tribulations of getting photos for the blog. He did love his new shirt though, and I get a lot of pleasure seeing him wear it.

Happy sewing.