Bow-Back Striped Floral Shirt

  I love this shirt! This is pretty high on the list of favorite things I've ever sewn. It's funny that I like it so much, because the bright pink brings it well out of the color palette I'm usually comfortable wearing- but those details make me so happy!

  I started with my knit shirt block, and divided it at the waist to make a peplum (actually, a bit below my waist, because I like the proportions better that way). I took a small piece out of the back above the waist for fitting purposes, and added that much length to the bottom of the back peplum. If you look closely at the stripes just above the waist seam you can see how it curves up a bit.

  I added ties to the front- this is the only part I don't totally love, as they tend to gape a bit at the top. I still like the concept though- maybe some interfacing would help.

  I moved the shoulder seam forward, and widened the neckline slightly, then bound the front neckline only with a strip of pink knit (from Girl Charlee, also used here). In the back, I added a partial second layer (and third, because I lined the second one for a clean edge, although binding would have been a better choice) and cinched it up to give a bow effect. I really, really love how that bit turned out!

  I sewed it together by capturing the front of the shirt between the back of the shirt and the bow layer- it's a bit bulky, and isn't as smooth as I'd like at the join between the front and back neckline, but it makes up for the lack of stretch in the front neckline. I spent some extra time matching the stripes:

  I was happy to have the tie section in the front though- with the shaping of the front versus the back it was impossible to match the stripes all the way down the side seam, and the ties help hide any un-matched bits.

  For the sleeves, I added a bound keyhole and a knotted cuff. I love how this turned out!

  The striped/floral fabric is from Sincerely Rylee well over a year ago- it was a custom design called Nova and I don't think the shop owner has any plans to run this one again, although I'm hoping I'm wrong!

    The skirt is another re-worked dress... although I really liked this grey dress, I almost never wore it, so I unpicked the skirt and waistband from the bodice and finished the top of the waistband, then re-hemmed the skirt a bit shorter. I'm glad I did, as I've worn it quite frequently in skirt form.

  And I'm really glad I chose a fabric I wouldn't usually try to sew this shirt, because I am so happy with the results!

Thanks for stopping by,

Soft Pleats Shirt

Apologies for the unintentionally long break between posts- I feel like I've had barely a moment to myself in months! Here's another shirt I made back in May.

  I bought this piece of black modal knit from Sincerely Rylee to try earlier this year, and it's such a lovely fabric- soft, with a heavy, graceful drape (although I've since discovered that not all modal knits are quite as nice as this one). I modified my knit shirt block to add some pleats, off-centered around a small rectangular section, and included a some ties in the sides of the rectangle. This was not the easiest thing I've ever sewn, in spite of lightly interfacing some sections to reduce the stretch! So it's not very clean, but I've yet to successfully seam-rip a knit, so it stays.

  I brought the section below the rectangle to a point. I expected that to be rather difficult to lettuce-edge, but it was much easier than I expected- I just started and stopped at the point, and threaded my tails in extra-carefully. I stretched the fabric much less near the point to keep it a bit more defined, but stretched normally the rest of the way around the hem.

 I also drew in a curved line on my sleeve piece, then flared the lower portion out to a half-circle and added a point to that as well.

  I love how the sleeves feel, although the weight of the knit makes them sit a bit lower on my arms than I'd meant for them to.

  I wish I'd tightened the whole shirt up a bit, or added a draped detail to the back of the shirt. As it is, it feels a little bit sloppy instead of graceful.

  But I do love this knit, and I really like the way the points turned out. Definitely something I'd like to experiment with more!

  The skirt might be a bit familiar- I took this dress, which I only wore a few times, and combined it with the lining from the lace skirt in this post, once that skirt was no longer wearable! Right now this black shirt is the only thing I can wear the skirt with, so it hasn't been worn all that many more times as a skirt than it was as a dress, but I do like it better.

  And that's it!

Thanks for stopping by,