Made! - Vogue 1387, view B

As my first garment post-quilt, this was a really enjoyable project: Vogue 1387, a Rebecca Taylor design.

Previously used for a gift for my mom (View A, blogged about here), I decided a long sleeve version for myself would be great for the season and work.

I LOVE THIS SHIRT.

The pattern is drafted beautifully. The front yokes and bias bands above the pleats are not altered to fit my shape - they just naturally fit.

Some Changes
- Graded to a size 6/8 around the waist for more shape
- Used a reverse pleat instead of gathers at the back yoke (next time I'll do gathers)

Welcome to our living room!

- Graded to a size 6 from the armscye to the wrist
- Overall, used size 10 in width, but size 12 in length
- Made my usual long torso adjustment, adding about an inch between the bust and waistline
- Used buttons rather than snaps because I LOVE BUTTONS

All seams are French seams, and the armscye allowances are whipstitched to the facings where possible, which will keep everything in place.

an inside view

one long French seam from wrist to hip

In addition to the fitting changes, I also constructed this shirt the way I like to make shirts for my husband - by attaching the sleeve at the armscye before sewing the underarm seam. Then, I sew the underarm and side seam together in one go.

The fabric is somewhat embarrassingly sourced at my local Walmart. As usual, I was there looking for something else but got distracted by the fabric section and found this mystery crepe for $2/yard.  For my next shirt I'll source from a local store.  This has become my process when trying a new pattern: cheaper wearable muslin and then locally sourced finer fabric.

An off-topic but happy accomplishment is a new ceiling light for our hallway. I installed it all by myself! It's a cool Tiffany design, and is a good transition piece from our bold living room (can you see that bright orange in the photos?!) to our neutral, tan hallway.

Made! - M6613

Ya'll, matching plaid is definitely not my favorite thing about sewing. Nonetheless, this garment turned out well! I looove the relaxed fit - I can play marimba and piano without it pulling!

I found this fabric - a lightweight flannel - on clearance at my local fabric store.  At the time our temps were still in the 40s, so...hence the lack of hesitation purchasing such a warm cloth.

The colors are beautiful! So saturated and bold - they look good with white, denim, black, and probably other colors that I happen to not own.  

Bias yoke!

I kept the length of my wearable muslin, blogged about here, but I added some width to the lower half of the front pieces to make room for my hips. 

In fact, many changes were made to the pattern after the first muslin was complete. 

- add 5/8" to sides at lower front, tapering to waist

- remove 2 1/4" of sleeve length

- remove 1/4" height from the collar stand

- remove 1/2" from each yoke shoulder, back armscye seam

- increase sleeve height

- raise each armhole 1/2"

- narrow the sleeve by 1/4"

Interestingly, I did not add length to the torso of this pattern. Perhaps that's because it's so gender-neutral? Not sure.  

At the suggestion of a recent article in Sew News - thanks, Nana, for the subscription :) -  all collar and collar stand pieces are interfaced for crisp lines, as opposed to just one of each.  Since the collar buttons were going to be omitted for this shirt, a crisp collar was an absolute must.

Crisp collar and matching pocket greatness.

All inside edges are finished as French seams simply because I'm in the habit of doing them. Next time I make a shirt for myself I'll use bound seams, though. 

Button color was a hard choice for this shirt. I couldn't decide between white, tan, blue, or navy, but it's obvious where things settled in that regard, I suppose.

I really like this shirt styled with white jeans or capris.  It helps it fit into the colorful seasons ahead. (Though summer is my favorite season and I'm really looking forward to it, I'm excited to wear this shirt with some jeans and cute brown boots in the fall!) 

Next project: a Mother's Day present for momma!!

Made! - M6613

After spending many hours creating a custom fit shirt sloper for my husband, I thought it was about time to make one for myself! So, when I came across M6613 during one of JoAnn's stellar pattern sales, I decided to snatch it up as a base shape.



I knew there would be lots of ease, since it's somewhat of a unisex pattern. (The line drawings make it look like there will be separate pieces for men and women, but that's a bag of lies...you have to do all of that in the fitting yourself.)

What I'm wearing here is my muslin, with no changes. I figured it's best to see what I'm working with before hacking it to pieces, no?  Seems I've got my work cut out for me! I wore it to work today with my Easter skirt.

For work I styled it differently, but here she is.

I got lots of compliments on my outfit, so I guess it looks alright!

As expected, there's a lot of room in the back, but I think I like that. My typical beef with button-ups is that there's not enough ease for me to actually move my arms. For my next version, I'll take some width out of the back beneath the yoke, so there's a slimmer silhouette but still wiggle room.

It's nice that the armscye is generous, but I think I will raise it a tad.  There's an opportunity for some work with the bust as well, but I'll talk more about changes when I make the shirt out of its intended fabric!

cat butt. she's not sorry.

I love this chambray so much that I decided no matter how it fits I'd make it right, complete with edgestitching and finished seams.

Inverted pleat for ease

The piece consists of two pieces, which are supposed to meet the yoke seam. Oops.

This shirt is nice and long, and I like it styled down, untucked. You'll notice that I'm short on buttons. I have so many that I refused to buy more for what began as just a muslin. So, I used four that were lying around and will purchase additional ones later.

I'll leave you with a picture with LooCat, who did not want to be photographed.

"Noooooo, Momma pleeeeeease....."

I'll catalog all my changes to the base pattern once I get working on the next shirt! It's exciting to think I'll have a sloper that fits me perfectly! Yay!