Button Up Shirt for Me

After my foray into sewing for others "The Birthday Shirt" and "The Madeline Dress", I have gone back to selfish sewing and made myself a button up shirt. This is a make I have had on my list for quite a while now, but haven't quite had the confidence to start.

I used the Archer Shirt Pattern from Grainline Studio. I was inspired by so many other Archers out there in blog land. Check these out Pinterest, Google, Flickr. So many shirts for inspiration. I chose to make View A. The pattern has a collar and separate collar band, a back yoke, a pleat in the centre back, a separate button band, pockets, long sleeves, angled cuffs and a continuous cuff placket.

I chose a lovely sheer cotton/poly voile in white which I purchased online from The Remnant Warehouse and it is still available. I love this fabric. Although it is very lightweight, it was easy to sew and pressed beautifully and it feels very soft and floaty to wear.

Although I did follow the Archer Sew Along which was great, I still found myself referring back to the Craftsy Class "The Classic Tailored Shirt". This class had so much more detailed instruction and I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone new to sewing button up shirts.

Front view (worn with a white tank top underneath for modesty)

Side View (Notice the huge sleeves)

Back view

I sewed a straight size 12 which was the correct size for my bust measurement. This shirt is loose fitting, but the sleeve proportions are ridiculous. I have long arms yet these sleeves are way too long and full and the cuff circumference was huge. No wonder so many reviewers had said they used a smaller sleeve size.

Oh dear, sleeves are too long.

Angled cuff detail

Back yoke and pleat

I sewed the seams on my sewing machine (note this pattern has 1/2 inch seam allowances) and then overlocked the seam allowances together with my overlocker, pressed to one side and then top stitched. This gives the look of flat felled seams without all the work. I did consider doing french seams, but with the 1/2 inch seam allowances, and french seams being a new technique for me, I chickened out.

Front detail and close up of fabric.

After reading Art Attack's blog about one of her Archer's, she inspired me to try "snaps" instead of buttons. I ordered the Snapsetter tool and snaps from SnapSource.com. I was very impressed with this company. The website is very easy to navigate and place an order. It took two weeks exactly from placing the order to receiving the order on my doorstep (that's USA to regional Australia). So this is the first garment I have tried them on and I am very happy with the result.

I'm sure I will be sewing more Archer's down the track.


Happy Sewing

The Madeline Dress by Wink Designs

My eldest Granddaughter is turning 3 at the end of this month and I have had my eye out for a simple toddler dress pattern that would be suitable to make for her as a gift. Initially, I purchased Simplicity 2265 in the recent pattern sale on Pattern Review. After having a closer look at it and reading some reviews, I realised there was quite a lot of work in making it, plus I was not going to be able to do any fittings during construction, as she lives a 6 hour drive away from me.

Then I spotted The Madeline Dress by Wink Designs.  Blogless Anna was a pattern tester and made a very cute "Madeline Dress" for her daughter. I was smitten with the cuteness of it and I checked out Wink Designs Etsy Shop straight away. Wink Designs is a small pattern maker based in Sydney Australia, who sells her PDF patterns for little girls through her Etsy shop.

Photo by Wink Designs

Photo by Wink Designs

I just loved the sweet little peter pan collar, the simple bodice, the buttons at the back, the cute pockets with the contrasting pocket flap and the fullness of the gathered skirt. This was just what I was looking for. So here is my version.

Front

Based on my Granddaughters measurements (taken during her last visit a few weeks ago) I cut a size 2 bodice and I lengthened the skirt to the size 3. I purchased this polycotton fabric from Bargain Box Fabrics. I love the bright and cheerful colours.

Back

The PDF Pattern was very easy to put together and each size was in a different colour, making it very easy to trace the correct size. There is a size chart (based on body measurements), instructions on how to assemble the PDF pattern, a fabric guide and a cutting layout. The instructions were clear and easy to follow and included some line drawings and a photo to illustrate the construction steps. The only problem I had was cutting out the main fabric. The recommended yardage was not enough to fit all the pattern pieces on. I overcame the issue by adding a contrasting strip across the bottom of the skirt. This was cut from the recommended yardage for the contrast fabric. Anyway, I quite like the contrasting band on the skirt. It ties in the collar and the pocket flaps.

Contrasting Peter Pan Collar

Buttons and buttonholes on the back of the bodice.

Pocket with contrasting pocket flap.

Contrasting band on skirt hem with top stitching.

The bodice is fully lined with contrasting fabric.

Inside back of bodice with button closure.

There was no interfacing used in this dress. The instructions suggest putting interfacing in the collar if preferred, but said it wasn't necessary. When I make this dress again, I think I will interface the area under the buttonholes. They feel a little fragile without interfacing.

Inside of skirt.

I over-locked (serged) the raw edges inside the dress to neaten them and the hem is simply turned up twice and top stitched.

I hope my Granddaughter will love this dress as much as I do. Hopefully I will update this post with a photo of her modelling the dress after her birthday.

Happy Sewing

The Birthday Shirt

Well, I have finally made my partner a proper men's shirt. (I have been promising this for a while now), just in time for his birthday.

In preparation to make this shirt, I purchased Pam Howard's "The Classic Tailored Shirt" from Craftsy. This class was fantastic. Pam is such a great teacher. She explained every step of making a classic tailored shirt very clearly and demonstrated every step in great detail. She even made a couple of mistakes herself, but then explained and showed how to fix those mistakes. I learnt so much from this class and it certainly gave me the confidence to make my own classic tailored shirt.

I used McCalls 6044 in a large with a few alterations.

I eliminated the separate front band, by cutting the front band and the shirt front as one piece. I also eliminated the seam in the two piece sleeve, so that the sleeve was only one piece. I redrafted the back of the shirt to create a proper yoke and yoke facing. I made these changes simply to make the shirt pattern more like the Kwik Sew pattern that Pam was using in the class. I also made a tower placket. The Craftsy class did not cover a tower placket, only a continuous placket was demonstrated. However, Pam did provide a pattern for a tower placket in the class notes and a link to her Tower Placket Tutorial.

The fabric I used was 100% cotton shirting purchased online from The Remnant Warehouse and I see it is still available. It was a lovely soft cotton and easy to work with. Although the stripes gave me a headache during the cutting out process. It took a lot of time and thought to get the stripes placed to look their best on the pattern pieces. I was quite pleased with the result. In fact, I matched the stripes so well on the pocket that it is almost invisible.

Pocket

Here are some photos during construction:

Pam's Yoke Trick (aka Burrito method)

After joining shirt fronts to shirt back outer yoke at the shoulder seams, the shirt fronts and shirt back are rolled up exposing the yoke facing, which is then wrapped around the rolls (like a burrito) and pinned to the shoulder seams. After sewing these seams, the rolls are gently pulled through the neck opening revealing a lovely neat fully enclosed yoke.

Yoke facing offset slightly to avoid pulling before stitching shoulder seams.

Setting the sleeve in flat with the "Flat Felled" seam pinned and ready to sew.

Collar and Collar Band ready to attach to neckline. 

Inside: Intersection of  Flat Felled side seams and armhole seam.

Inside of shirt tail hem.

Tower placket and cuff.

I really enjoyed the construction of this shirt. Everything was finished off so neatly. As Pam Howard said "You could wear this shirt inside out if you wanted to". There was some hand stitching involved. The collar band and the cuff facings were hand stitched using a fell stitch, and the buttons were sewed on by hand. This was a nice touch and as Pam Howard said " it makes it a handmade shirt. You can sew a shirt entirely by machine, but you can go to the shops and buy one of those." I have to agree that the little bit of hand sewing made the construction of the shirt more personal and I felt that I was putting a lot of love into it.

Front

Back

Collar

Back yoke and collar

Cuff and sleeve pleats

Overall I am really pleased with how this shirt turned out. My partner even wore it out in public when we went out for dinner to celebrate his birthday. There are a couple of changes I will make for the next one ( and yes, there will be a next one or two or maybe even three). I will add about 6cm to the sleeve length and also increase the length of the tower placket. My partner is very tall (6' 4") and slim and he has extra long arms.

And to finish off....how appropriate was this birthday card?

Happy Sewing 

Three Easy Tops

Top No. 1

I have made another Sewaholic Renfrew. This time I made view B with the V Neck.

Fabric used was a grey cotton jersey. This was quite a stable knit and sewed well. The neckline is pulling a bit in this photo because of the way I have my arm positioned.

You can see how well the neckline sits when my arms are by my side.

And here is the back view. I am quite happy with the fit. The sleeves are a bit long but being cotton there may be some shrinkage, so I was allowing for this.

I was very happy with the V Neck. The instructions were very clear and made this quite easy. I finished the neckline with a twin needle rather than zigzag as the instructions suggest. I think this gives it a more RTW finish and stops it looking home made.

I have finally parted with my overlocker and sent it off for a well needed service. Therefore, I sewed this top entirely on my sewing machine, finishing the seams with a zigzag stitch.

This will be a great casual top for the weekend.

Top No. 2

Dolman Sleeve Top from Cation Designs which is a free pattern.

This a great little pattern that has been popping up quite a bit lately. I have made this previously (Pattern Review) but the neckline was a complete disaster.

For this one I changed the dimensions of the neck band from 24" x 1.25" (61cm x 3.2cm) to 21" x 2"(53.3cm x 5cm) This worked out much better. I also used the length and the hem band from the Sewaholic Renfrew. Fabric used was a jersey left over from my Wrap Dress. 

I finished off the neckline using a zigzag stitch which I thought suited the fabric design better than a twin needle finish.

This is a great addition to my weekend wardrobe and a great way to use up some leftover fabric.

Top No.3

This one is a combination of the Cation Design Dolman Sleeve Top and the Sewaholic Renfrew V Neck Top.

Fabric choice can make a huge difference. The fabric I used for this top was a very fine knit (unknown content) that had a lot of drape and not a very good recovery. This had sat in my stash for a while. I didn't quite know what to do with it so I thought it would do, to try out this pattern combination.

See all that fabric pooling at the back? This is exactly the same back pattern piece I used for Top No. 2 (except for the neckline), and I didn't have any fabric pooling problem with that one. Also the sleeve bands are too loose. You might notice that the hem band is a little narrower too. I cut the original one off and removed nearly 7 inches before reattaching it.

This fabric is really tissue thin. I purchased it online, thinking it looked like a sweater knit from the online photo...I was bitterly disappointed. I guess that's the risk you take when ordering online.

You can see how thin it is in the shot above where the flash has picked up my bra through the fabric.

One thing I was really pleased with was the V Neck on this top. It turned out really neat, so I guess I will be making a few more of these easy tops in the future. (Just have to be quite careful choosing the fabric).


Happy Sewing