Noile dot Net

I cut this shirt out last year during the week I made my Soho coat when my spouse and I were vacationing with my in-laws.

Only the front and back seams were done by the time we got home, and somehow it got set aside until now, when finishing it became important. I’d cut out View B (on the right, above), but I’ll be making View C (on the left) the MIni-Wardrobe Contest, so getting this muslin finished mattered tonight. What was I thinking when I chose this fabric for this shirt? That’s right, folks: Itsy, bitsy stripes and princess seams. Curvy princess seams. In days gone by, I used to pride myself on my ability to match complicated plaids (and I really was very good at it). But that was a long time ago, and, if memory serves, half the battle was choosing the right pattern in the first place. This was not the right pattern. Just to prove that I actually can match stripes, though, I offer this:

You can hardly see the seam. Needless to say, I didn’t do as well on the bust curves, nor at matching the sleeves. In fact, I pretty much tossed in the towel after multiple tries. This was a muslin, after all. All of that said, I really do like the shirt. I’ll wear it under a fleece, and no one will realize that my stripes are an eighth of an inch off in strategic places. (And worse on the sleeves; they’re not quite as bad as they look in the photo, but they’re not good.) The pattern itself couldn’t be simpler, or more flattering — the shape really is wonderful, and, as is (size 12) fits my bust perfectly.

If you have the good sense not to use stripes, it should make up extremely quickly. The cowl is very, very long. In fact, it works well as a hood, and I’ll wear it that way with a fleece vest once the weather gets cooler. This pattern is definitely a keeper, and I’m eager to see how it works in my turquoise cotton knit.

Update:  “Epileptic” said my poor spouse, shielding his eyes from the horror of these stripes as I modeled this shirt for him.  I see his point, sort of, but what’s a little eye strain compared to the relentless boredom of one solid color after another?

Yes, I did it again. It was my spouse’s fault. He took one look at my mini-wardrobe storyboard and said “You’re nuts. Marcy’s right. If you make that shirt again in that cotton, you won’t like it.” (OK, he was a little more diplomatic, but that’s what he meant.)

To refresh our memories, here’s Marcy Tilton’s Vogue 8497, looking smashing:

Marcy asserted the critical role of lycra in her comments on PatternReview.com. So I looked for lycra-enhanced knits in our fair village. And elsewhere.

This charming stuff was all I could find. It was cheap; I bought it in two colors. I made the shirt. It fits better (It actually fits me quite well; my dummy, not so much. Must replace dummy.) The fabric (poly/lycra) was awful to work with. (Another note: must learn to sew knits.) Details follow.

First, the alterations: I effectively shortened the sleeves by only one inch, instead of the two I’d taken up previously. I added two inches to the length all around, and took the side seams in to fit my actual body. I bound the collar, folding Vogue’s band over to make just a half-inch binding. I was very careful with the neckline, and think I’ve now got one that is what Marcy meant it to be, at least in terms of its size and shape. (Though not, of course, its width.)

For reasons that are still unclear to me, I also added an organza ruffle. It’s made of bias strips, about an inch deep, and folded double. It was quite twisty, so I pinned it to my cutting board overnight, which calmed it down quite a bit. Here’s a picture:

To stabilize and control the ruffle, I zigzagged it to one-quarter-inch twill tape, which worked perfectly. Then I basted it between the overlapping right front and the left front, and assembled the front per Vogue’s directions.

When it was all done, I put it on and walked downstairs to show my spouse. “Good God!” he exclaimed, later claiming that his eyes were too watery from pain to actually see how well it fit. This is not the reaction I expected from a man whose Hawaiian shirt collection has electrified an entire wall in our attic for a decade and a half. Who knew he had a secret streak of conservatism?

He suggested I donate the shirt to the deserving poor, but not before agreeing that it fits very well.

I’m making this one again, as soon as I can get my hands on some cotton/lycra. If anyone comments, references to “pigheadedness” will not be appreciated. This is just reasonable persistence. Really.

Oh, yeah. The storyboard’s getting edited. But not tonight.

I’m desperately looking for a top to make for PR’s Mini-Wardrobe Contest. Marcy Tilton’s new tee shirt (Vogue 8497) was on my story board, but I haven’t yet worked out the issues I wrote about last week. Since we’re only a week away from the contest start, I went for something super-simple, and made this New Look tank.

I made view D (the green one on the lower right). The fabric’s a lighter weight linen; I made the facings of a poly-cotton I had on hand.

I like the neckline very much; it turned out very well, and it fits nicely. It’s designed with a slit in the neck in back, which closes with a button. I dislike these closures, so I eliminated the center back seam, and added a zipper to the left side seam.

Because there are small vents at the bottom of the tank, I inserted the zipper so that the opening is toward the hem, making a neat placket insertion.

The zipper stops at the same point that the vent begins on the other side, so there are still vents on each side of the tank. My machine doesn’t have fancy decorative stitches, so I used a crosshatch pattern to finish the neck, armholes and hem. Everything looks fine, but it just doesn’t send me. It’s also not right with Marcy’s skirt (Vogue 8499) either; in fact, both it and the skirt look frumpy when combined. A plain old sleeveless cotton tank — a snug one — looks a lot better with Marcy’s skirt. This is crucial; that skirt is on my storyboard. Sigh. I guess it’s back to the drawing board. Eight more days — should I panic yet?