6 years ago
It seemed like such a good idea at the time – this fabric was perfect for a summery shirt and I thought a matching pair of shorts would make a great 'faux romper' look, but also give me another mix and match outfit idea.
Well it was a good idea, but various delays to my sewing meant that I didn't get the shorts finished until the weather had broken and instead of the gloriously sunny heatwave, we had cold wet and windy weather which isn't ideal for wearing shorts. But at least it means I'm ready for next year!
This Rose & Hubble fabric reminded me of a painting my grandparents had of Tahiti, so I couldn't resist making some summery clothing from this design. As I expected from cotton fabric, there was some shrinkage once it had been machine washed and line dried. It lost 6% of the length and width which wasn't too terrible. I did think the fabric would crease quite badly but the few creases that were there were pretty easy to iron out. There was hardly any fraying in the wash either, which was a pleasant surprise.
I've wanted to make an Amherst Shirt from Hey June Handmade (https://www.heyjunehandmade.com/product/amherst-shirt/) ever since it was released, and thought this would be the perfect shirt pattern for this fabric. The shirt is styled as a relatively loose fit, so other than removing an inch to compensate for my lack of height, I didn't need to grade sizes or make any other alterations.
This is only the second time I have ever tried pattern matching pockets, and it worked surprisingly well. If I had found a slightly less obvious thread colour I think the pockets would have blended in even more, but I was finding it challenging to pick a colour which would be less visible on both the light and darker sections of the fabric. In the end, I went with Coats Moon thread M0086. I did have a lighter colour for the bobbin thread, but that's mainly to make unpicking any rogue stitches a little easier, as the lighter thread was easier to see!
To make the pattern look like it flows across the front, I folded the fabric and cut the front pieces out with the front placket edge nearest the fold. It wasn't ever going to look seamless once I added in the placket pieces, but at least the fabric on the main body flows horizontally. Because I was using the FBA pattern piece which includes bust darts, I didn't even attempt to pattern match the side seams as I knew they wouldn't match all the way from the armscye down to the hem.
Onto the back, and the main body piece has a pleat which means any vertical pattern matching for the yoke wasn't going to work. I could have just sewn it following the instructions, but I wanted to have something there just to break the pattern up a little. I found a piece of bias binding in my sewing box which was just long enough to cover the edge of the yoke, and stitched that into place as I was sewing the yoke / main body seam. That was then topstitched in place to stop it flapping around, and I think it added a great little detail to the back of the shirt.
The sleeves were an interesting sew as the cuff is part of the sleeve pattern piece. This means there's no raw edges where the cuff joins the sleeve, but it made for a little fabric origami in trying to get it all to lie smoothly before sewing! I think it was worth the extra effort though as the sleeve cuffs do look better than the 'normal' cuffs I've sewn before.
The buttons were the perfect finishing touch, as I thought the pale stripe gave a wave-like effect. Rather than lining the buttons up so the holes were horizontal, I lined up the stripes as that would be more obvious from a distance if they were all in various different directions.
I did make a slight alteration to the finish of the sleeve - instead of sewing on a buttonhole to the sleeve tab and a button on the sleeve, I decided to just sew the tab directly to the shirt. I didn't see any real benefit in being able to undo the tab and it just seemed like an unnecessary extra to bother with another couple of buttonholes! It does give the shirt a slightly different look which I prefer.
#MinervaMakes #MinervaMakers #AmherstShirt #DragonSews #sewing #summer #shirt #shorts #mask #facecovering #tropical
Well it was a good idea, but various delays to my sewing meant that I didn't get the shorts finished until the weather had broken and instead of the gloriously sunny heatwave, we had cold wet and windy weather which isn't ideal for wearing shorts. But at least it means I'm ready for next year!
This Rose & Hubble fabric reminded me of a painting my grandparents had of Tahiti, so I couldn't resist making some summery clothing from this design. As I expected from cotton fabric, there was some shrinkage once it had been machine washed and line dried. It lost 6% of the length and width which wasn't too terrible. I did think the fabric would crease quite badly but the few creases that were there were pretty easy to iron out. There was hardly any fraying in the wash either, which was a pleasant surprise.
I've wanted to make an Amherst Shirt from Hey June Handmade (https://www.heyjunehandmade.com/product/amherst-shirt/) ever since it was released, and thought this would be the perfect shirt pattern for this fabric. The shirt is styled as a relatively loose fit, so other than removing an inch to compensate for my lack of height, I didn't need to grade sizes or make any other alterations.
This is only the second time I have ever tried pattern matching pockets, and it worked surprisingly well. If I had found a slightly less obvious thread colour I think the pockets would have blended in even more, but I was finding it challenging to pick a colour which would be less visible on both the light and darker sections of the fabric. In the end, I went with Coats Moon thread M0086. I did have a lighter colour for the bobbin thread, but that's mainly to make unpicking any rogue stitches a little easier, as the lighter thread was easier to see!
To make the pattern look like it flows across the front, I folded the fabric and cut the front pieces out with the front placket edge nearest the fold. It wasn't ever going to look seamless once I added in the placket pieces, but at least the fabric on the main body flows horizontally. Because I was using the FBA pattern piece which includes bust darts, I didn't even attempt to pattern match the side seams as I knew they wouldn't match all the way from the armscye down to the hem.
Onto the back, and the main body piece has a pleat which means any vertical pattern matching for the yoke wasn't going to work. I could have just sewn it following the instructions, but I wanted to have something there just to break the pattern up a little. I found a piece of bias binding in my sewing box which was just long enough to cover the edge of the yoke, and stitched that into place as I was sewing the yoke / main body seam. That was then topstitched in place to stop it flapping around, and I think it added a great little detail to the back of the shirt.
The sleeves were an interesting sew as the cuff is part of the sleeve pattern piece. This means there's no raw edges where the cuff joins the sleeve, but it made for a little fabric origami in trying to get it all to lie smoothly before sewing! I think it was worth the extra effort though as the sleeve cuffs do look better than the 'normal' cuffs I've sewn before.
The buttons were the perfect finishing touch, as I thought the pale stripe gave a wave-like effect. Rather than lining the buttons up so the holes were horizontal, I lined up the stripes as that would be more obvious from a distance if they were all in various different directions.
I did make a slight alteration to the finish of the sleeve - instead of sewing on a buttonhole to the sleeve tab and a button on the sleeve, I decided to just sew the tab directly to the shirt. I didn't see any real benefit in being able to undo the tab and it just seemed like an unnecessary extra to bother with another couple of buttonholes! It does give the shirt a slightly different look which I prefer.
#MinervaMakes #MinervaMakers #AmherstShirt #DragonSews #sewing #summer #shirt #shorts #mask #facecovering #tropical
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