Summer sewing at its best! Yellow! Spots!
Seersucker! Sleeveless! I feel like I am on holiday!
I bought this fabric about 18 months ago,
from Spotlight, in Australia, at the height of my spot obsession. They are
getting a little dated, so I am really pleased that I finally made something
with it.
I made a sway back adjustment through the
seam where the yoke and the back join. I also shortened the waist by 3cm.
Otherwise, I made no changes. I should have trimmed 1cm from the armholes
before adding the binding. The holes allow for a 1.5cm seam allowance and my
binding only uses up .5cm of that. They are too small. I might go back and
re-do the binding. But, equally, I might not! [Update: I re-did the binding - will wonders ever cease?!]
The fabric wasn’t too badly behaved. It is
a very large scale seersucker so the puckers are very puffy and the rows of
channels are large too. It has a lot of
thickness so it is not really a cool and light summer fabric. But I like that
it is not sheer at all. My eight year old said in the sweetest voice, “Mummy,
it looks like one of those cloths that you use to wash the dishes.” Why, yes it does, darling! Never mind, I like yellow spots,
and it is so handy to have a nice bit of fabric close to hand when my sunglasses get
smeary!
It pressed nicely, but pressing makes the
puckers flatten, so I avoided pressing except through the seams. I am sure they will come
back in the wash. I sort of matched the stripes, but princess seams don’t
really make that possible. I can’t believe that this is my first time sewing
princess seams! I knew from my favourite sewing guru, Caroline, that one should
ease the curve to make it fit. So I did. And it did. Thanks Caroline!
It was also my first time sewing a button band and a collar stand. All went without a hitch. They are not hard, I just don’t really make, or wear, blouses. I haven’t made the inside plackets as neat as they should be. I forgot that they would be on show, that they are actually the right side, unless I am going to button the shirt all the way to the top. Which I am not. I’ll take more care with that area next time. I also forgot to interface one of the button bands, the buttonhole one, so I hand stitched a layer of interfaced fabric to the underside before I sewed the buttonholes.
I didn’t have enough fabric for the collar
so I made the underside from the cream polycotton. I thought I would have a lot
more trouble getting all the parts from my .96m than I did. I was planning to make the collar stand and the
button bands from the same poly. It was nice not to have to. I used the poly
for the armhole bindings and the hem binding. I learned from Lauren that a curved
hem works better when bound, rather than turned, and it means you can be more miserly with fabric. Mine didn't end up curved.
I don’t think I added back enough hem when I
shortened the waist. I tried it on and decided that it was best at this length and didn’t want to
lose any length from the sides. My hemming isn’t great. I ignored the pattern instruction
to hem before making the button bands and only discovered why this is a good
idea after I had done it, so the front hem is too high. Next time, I will hem
when instructed.
Finally, my dear yellow buttons. I have a
massive stash of men's shirt buttons, but these yellow ones were just too much fun not to
include. I think I got them in a pack from a dollar store. The fabric is so
thick that I didn’t need to go any higher with my buttons, so it looks a bit
rude. [Update: Since I took these photos, I have gone back and added one more button at the top. I put it on the buttonhole side of the placket, with no buttonhole. It would be covered by the shirt if I sewed it on the correct side.] The best part of making
your own blouses is that you can position a button at the centre line of your
actual bust so that there is no chance of gaping at all. Why do so many of my RTW shirts
have one button above the bust, and one below? This creates a lovely window in my shirt, showing off my bra. Not pretty. Seriously, I have a number of shirts that I have to fasten with a safety pin to stop this happening.
I really like the back pleat. I think it looks very smart. The pattern instructions made no mention of seam finishing. The yoke seam just said press towards yoke. I decided to make a flat felled seam instead. I had cut the yoke on the straight grain and I wanted some extra strength there, plus it is a nice, neat finish to use on a horizontal seam. The fabric didn’t behave perfectly, the puckers ended up puffing out under the presser foot. My seam looks wobbly even though the stitching is straight. This happened with all of my seams in this fabric. Anywhere they went over the puckered part, it puffed out. This was also a problem when I tried to zig zag my internal seam finishes. They became really large and wavy so I ended up pinking them instead. Luckily they don’t show through and I hope they won’t fray too fast. If I make this again, I will do flat felled or French seams throughout, but this time was untested (no toile) so I didn’t want to unpick and re-do French seams.
The final verdict is that I am really pleased with this
shirt and this pattern and I can’t wait to make it again. A light, airy fabric
would be just perfect.
Costs
Fabric: Spotlight, (A$7) £4
Pattern: Minerva, £4.65
Thread: Stash, £0
Interfacing: John Lewis, £0.90
Contrast Fabric: gift, £0
Buttons: dollar store, £1
Total: £10.55
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