Flowered shirt

I have cut out my flowered shirt and marked it all.......I hate transferring markings with a passion. I know this is one of the most important tasks in sewing especially thread tracing, it helps me so much but I really hate doing it so I do it in small increments. I make sure all the preparation is done altogether cutting, marking, choosing and cutting interfacing and thread and button choice and it all takes so much time when you are impatient to get started sewing, it takes all of my willpower not to just jump in and start sewing on my machine.


I am a little disappointed with this fabric, it wasn't cheap but when I was making samples of different interfacings and I used some steam the dye came out of the fabric onto my ironing board. This has never happened to me before, if I had known what was going to happen I would have washed it another couple of times.....I washed it once......funnily enough the dye off the flowers hasn't come out onto the white backround of the fabric, I wonder if it is the heat and moisture together that is doing it. Anyway I am not going to waste it.

Above you can see the imprint on my ironing board cover from the fabric so I have covered my ironing board with some white sheeting while I make this shirt. I will definitely have to make another cover now.

I don't think I will get much sewing done for the next few months because we are having some home improvements done. Sigh, sigh.

Finished shirt

I am calling this a shirt because I didn't want a fitted blouse, I wanted a slouchy shirt something relaxed and casual. Did I achieve that?......I don't know, I think I have too many curves and bulges but I am happy with the result even though there are lots of fitting issues to be sorted.

This is the shirt that I absolutely love

a Calvin Klein big slouchy shirt........this is my interpretation

as you can see the shoulders are slipping to the back but they are like that on the pattern picture as well. I could have added more darts but that would have been a fitted blouse and that isn't what I am looking for. This shirt would have been massive, I have had to take out about 4" from the width and about 2" from the sleeves, add a dart and do a FBA, the yoke..... I had to do extensive alterations because of my round shoulders, I also had to put a seam down the middle and add extra width.

The sleeves also had a lot of alterations, they weren''t long enough, they were far too wide, I had to extend the top of the armsye to accomodate my large shoulders and take out some pleats from the cuff .

The shoulder seam was too far down the arm so I adjusted for that as well. I am happy with everything except the shoulders, but I will have to live with it unless I want it more fitted.

These pictures are with my tailored trousers.

These pictures are with the navy chino cotton trousers I have just finished, I suppose I could wear my trainers with these for a more casual look.

These are with my white cotton and linen trousers, lovely and light an airy for summer.....not sure about the earrings. I tried a leather belt at my waist that was a no no, it looked ridiculous.

This little one had to get in on the act wanting her belly tickled .....as usual.

Finished

I have finished my white top but it really needs a wash and press, I am going out tomorrow so it will have to wait until Sunday.

I think I might wash the crinkle cotton next and make the same top without the sleeves. I'll see.

Just for something to look at......here is a picture of me getting a retrieve from Piper in a competition, that is the judge standing next to me. This was last year, I came 3rd.

Shopping again

I bought the two fabrics below over a year ago and I had decided to wash and dry them ready to sew them when I finish my white blouse..... so I went shopping today for some buttons for my white blouse and some thread for the fabrics below. The plain lighter green fabric is linen the other is lining.

This fabric is silk which has to dry cleaned but I put it on a delicate wash and it is fine, I can't be doing with dry cleaning blouses.

These are now washed and dried and put away in my box ready to be used..... however when I went shopping today I found some fabric for another summer shirt.

Now I am not a flowery person at all.....I am plain and simple really, but I saw this lovely crinkle cotton print which caught my eye. This was £5.95 a metre and I got 3 metres which cost me nearly £18.00.....not a cheap blouse when you can buy RTW cheaper, probably not the same quality though.

This is a closer look, lovely for summer.

I think I might wash this fabric for my next project......I'll see.

These are the other things that I bought, the white stuff is interfacing, a very lightweight interfacing which I bought for the silk shirt, the other interfacing is for stretch fabrics which I have never used before. The cream coloured threads are silk for the silk blouse and the green is pure cotton for the linen trousers. The buttons are lovely little shirt buttons with a gold trim, they were half price so I bought 24, I have had them before and they look lovely on white fabric. They won't be getting anymore so I bought extra.

All this little lot cost me £50 and a few pence, sewing is an expensive hobby.

White blouse

This is the placket and pleats before the cuff goes on, I haven't done a sleeve with a cuff for a long time, I generally do 3/4 sleeves with a vent so I am enjoying doing this.

Another view, this is lovely fabric to work with, it is very delicate and airy.

This is the neckline and the facing, this is a big shirt, I have already taken out about 2" in width and it is still a big shirt......I hope I am going to like it.

This is the bust dart which I had to add for a bit of shaping, it was about a 2" dart so I had to trim and overcast it with a small zig zag stretch stitch, it looks a lot better trimmed down.

This is my iron, which I have had for over 20 years. It is a Hashima H1-350PS.....this looks a little bit dated but believe me this little contraption does the business, I don't use a sole plate either they are a real nuisance I would rather use a muslin cloth. The ironing board which my iron is standing on is about 40 years old, the top of it fell to bits so my DH put me a piece of plywood on top and screwed it on......it is wider than an average ironing board and is padded with flananette and a white ironing board cover on top which I made, I need a new one this one is quite discoloured now.

I know this looks a little strange, I have a hook with which to hang it from the ceiling but I would rather use this just incase it falls.

Interfacings

I have been trying different interfacings for my blouse......I have always, always used a light weight iron on interfacing for blouses but after reading David Coffin's shirtmaking book I have decided to try different natural fibres for interfacing.

In the picture above you are instructed to stay the neck edge because the v is on the bias.....I have used cotton organza .......I just pinked a strip of organza on the grain instead of using the selvage which wasn't wide enough.

Here are more of my interfacings.....on the bottom is bleached soft muslin for the fronts, then a strip of organza for the front neck stay and I think I will also use organza for the cuffs because I want something a little bit more substantial than the muslin. As you can see from the cuff above I have marked all my pieces and at last I am ready to do some sewing.

Here is little Miss Poser, she just loves the camera......I just have to tell her to sit and she will sit forever as long as she is the centre of attention she is one happy little dog.

Another one......she was still sitting there .......I had to walk away so she would follow me otherwise she would be there all day.

BJ asked "I see those shoulders are way down the arm...did you adjust your pattern to change that, or will you leave that design element as is? Love the idea of a loose fitting white top. Your fabric is gorgeous!"
I have actually scaled this pattern down an enormous amount.....it was far too big, it is an old pattern so this style is a bit dated......I took an inch out of the inside of each pattern piece.......I just made a 1/2" pleat down the centre of each pattern piece, then I took another inch out at the side seams. I took the pleat out of the back, put a seam in the yoke because of my round shoulders, because I have taken an inch out of the pattern pieces that made the sleeves too short......so the sleeves aren't as dropped as in the photograph.....I had to do some extensive work on the sleeves, I still don't think they are right. I really wanted a basic shirt pattern, with a yoke, sleeves with a cuff so that I could build it into a shirt that fits me, I intend to add a collar to this at some time.
I don't suppose this shirt will be a perfect fit, it is really difficult IMHO to fit a loose fitting shirt.......if you try and fit it too much it ends up as a fitted shirt.