Tuesday, August 20, 2013

A Trio of Shirts

Wow - how time flies when you are busy sewing!  So busy that I forgot to post . . . . !  I have been somewhat preoccupied planning a trip abroad and wanted a few 'mix and match' tops to wear so I picked up some lovely linen and linen/rayon fabric in natural and chartreuse and got to work.

I decided to make three (actually, I have made four, but I forgot to photograph one of them!) more of the Shapely Blouses from Singer Perfect Plus -



This last photo best captures the color, and yes, I know, it really needed another pressing before it's debut!!  The previous shirt had a lot of excess in the back near the bottom of the seam, so I took this out and I think it looks a lot better now.  I serged all the seams and added a faux-fell seam to all seams (which unfortunately does not show on these photos).  I found that it has given a more professional looking finish.

This second shirt is from a natural linen.  Same design/finishes etc -





Pretty much the same as the chartreuse one, but I managed to find some mid-brown semi-opaque button that look rather lovely!  I used my Singer Featherweight again for the buttonholes (oh how I love that machine!)  This is the first time that I have sewn with linen - so I made sure that I followed all the advice to wash/dry it multiple times!  But boy, I was not prepared for the way the stitches just 'sink' into the fabric when it is pressed.  Lovely!

The last shirt is made from a woven striped patter.  As it does not crease very much I suspect that it has some poly in it, and it came from my Mum's collection -



A couple of quick comments - I managed to pick up some coat-hangers that have a black 'flocked' finish to them, almost like velvet.  They were terribly cheap, but they really 'grip' the shoulders of my tops, especially shells and knitwear - and you can see them poking out in some of these photos.

Secondly, I have to apologise for not having 'posed' photos.  Having recently moved house (OK, that was almost 6 months ago!) I can't find my tripod and never seem to be organised enough to arrange a photo shoot when I have a photographer around.  However, these clothes will be coming with me on my holidays next month so I will get lots of 'real' pics then!!

I do find that tops are my nemesis - I can sew up skirt or some simple trousers quite quickly now, so I am rather thrilled to be able to sew up these tops that fit pretty well and look good.  I plan to play around with the pattern and lift the neckline, add long sleeves and maybe add an attached facing as the collar and facing on these take up about 1/2m of interfacing.  Phew!

How about you - what is your sewing nemesis?