Tag Archives: Button Up

Peachskin Blaire Shirt

I made another shirt – something new and different for me (read in a sarcastic voice!)

It is, however, a new to me pattern – the Style Arc Blaire Shirt. I had admired this pattern for quite a while and bought it last year and I finally made plans to make it during the Summer and ended up making it in September, when it was still relatively warm here.

I like the shape of the side seams and the under layer, though I did get a little confused by the instructions and was paranoid that I had done it wrong until it was basically finished. This was my first Style Arc pattern and I have to say the instructions are sparse to say the least – I think it fitted on one side of A4 in 2 columns. Luckily I’ve made a lot of shirts and this pattern doesn’t have some of the trickier parts of shirt-making, like cuffs and plackets and the collar seemed pretty simple to put in. I think this would be doable as a first shirt, though.

The fabric was this mustard with a geometric blue and white pattern peach skin from Fabric Godmother but she doesn’t seem to have it any more, sadly. This was my first time working with peachskin and I kind of like it – I don’t know about the fibre content, but I assume it’s synthetic as it does make me slightly sweaty without necessarily making me warm, but I like the drape and the slinky-ness. It was a little slippery to cut and sew, but it wasn’t as slippery as the crepe I used for my Mercury Trousers, so it seemed okay coming off the back of making those!

Another way the Blaire is a little simpler than, say, the Archer or the Melilot, is that there is no yoke or pleat on the back, so you don’t have to worry about any burritos!

I made the straight size 8, without making any changes and I’m happy with the fit – as you know if you’ve been reading my blog for a while, I like looser-fitting tops and particularly shirts. You can’t really see that there is a seam across the middle – I think when (probably when, not if) I make it again I might pay with the directions of stripes or with some colour-blocking.

I sadly didn’t have any outtakes from this photo shoot, which is a shame because it’s my favourite part of my blog posts. 😦

I think I’ll definitely keep my eye out for a fabric to make another shirt next year when the weather warms up again. And I do kind of want to make the shirt dress version – I don’t actually own any shirt dresses, which is weird considering I like shirts so much!

Cropped Kalle Shirt

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I’m finally blogging my Kalle shirt, which I think I made mostly in March and then finished in April (i.e. took about 3 weeks to get around to adding the buttons!). I love this shirt! If you’ve read my blog for a while (or looked at my handmade wardrobe archive page) you will see that I like making shirts and have made a few different patterns. This was my first Kalle but I predict it won’t be my last. I wish I lived somewhere that was warmer more of the year so I could justify a couple of the shirt dress version, but I already have lots of dresses I never wear, so maybe more cropped versions and some tunic versions are in my future.

I made the straight size 6 based on my measurements and made no adjustments, and I’m pretty happy with the fit. I think I have a long body, so maybe next time I would add a couple of inches to the front hem (and maybe the back hem to keep them in the same proportion) to make it just a little less cropped, but I do love it. I just need to make more high-waisted trousers to wear it with!

I bought this fabric from the Sewing Bee Live from Higgs and Higgs. I can’t find it on their website, and Sew Over It have sold out. It was kind of a last minute purchase – I’ve got a certain amount of money out to spend on fabric and hadn’t spent it all by the end of the day, so I bought it for my last £20 (it was £10 per metre) and I’m so glad I did! It has a really nice drape and although monochrome might be a bit boring, I’m sure I’ll get a lot of wear out of this once the weather is warm enough – though I could wear it with a vest underneath.

I made the version with the hidden button placket, and I’m so glad it actually worked this time, unlike when I tried it on my first Deer and Doe Melilot shirt. The instructions were great, very clear. And it’s great that she gets you to sew the button holes as soon as you’ve made the placket so you’re not wrestling a finished shirt through your machine to make the buttonholes.

I really love the giant pleat on the back – it gives the back a really nice, swingy shape. I’m glad I picked a drapey fabric for this, though I’d be curious to make it with a more structured cotton or something.

I really do love the shape of the hem – and sewing the hem facing was super easy. I was worried it would all go wrong and not sit nicely, but the drafting and the instructions are spot on.

Sadly I don’t have any outtakes today, boo! I took these photos myself using my tripod and timer and it tends to be when The Boyfriend takes the photos that I end up with some great photos!

I may be pretty late to the Kalle party, but I really do love it. I also love shirt making in general – I like all the topstitching, as it makes me feel like a boss when it goes well and the stitching is all straight. And I like that shirts are more involved than some projects (not that I don’t love a quick win sometimes) and handily I love wearing shirts, so it’s lucky that I don’t mind making them. I have the Style Arc Briar next on my list of shirt patterns to try, but I’m looking for the perfect fabric.

Do you make shirts? Is there a particular type of garment you love making?

Greyish-Blueish Melilot Shirt

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This shirt is sort of one of my makes for June, but I finished it in July as I was scared to sew the button holes because my machine does not like them! But they’re never as bad as I think they’re going to be, they’re just not totally straight sometimes.

Anyway, here is the shirt:

The fabric is some blueish-greyish cotton I bought from Barry’s fabrics in Birmingham when I went shopping with some Bristol lovelies. As with my other Melilot, I made the size 38 with no changes, though this is the other view, with sort sleeves.

This version was definitely easier to make because the fabric is much more stable – and I cut it out much more accurately! One of the main things I really like about this pattern is the shape of the hem, and especially how it dips down lower at the back. BTW it’s really hard to take a photo of a hem from the side without your arm getting in the way, or looking weird and folding your arms or something!

I don’t really have a huge amount to say about this make, except to say I really like it. I like how it’s sort of between 2 colours, and I like the 2 pockets. The only slight problem is when I wore it with my Simplicity trousers, it did look a bit like a crappy uniform. It was especially bad when I tucked it in for some reason!

The only thing I did ‘wrong’ was to not use any interfacing…….because I didn’t have any and I’m impatient and wanted to just sew it already! I thought it was a thick enough cotton (though not as thick as quilting cotton) to cope without, and I think it will hold up.

I really like my long-sleeved version, but for these warm-ish months, I’m really liking kimono-style sleeves, especially if they have little cuffs, like these. I think this would be a great version to make (again) with a drapier fabric, so the sleeves sit better.

It’s funny how sometimes you make something you really like and you know you will wear it a lot, but you don’t really have anything to say about it! Do you ever feel that? Or is it just me?!

I’ll leave you with this week’s outtake! The Boyfriend was helping me take pictures and I couldn’t tell when he was pressing go so I kept talking!

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Blue Patterned Melilot Blouse

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Today I’m posting the last of the things I made in October……in December. I’m a little backed up, what can I say?

This is the Deer and Doe Melilot Shirt made from some mystery slippery fabric I got from Rolls and Rems at Holloway Road. It’s the first Deer and Doe pattern I’ve made and after the brief panic when I thought the instructions only came in French (they don’t, fyi, there is a French booklet and an English one!), the shirt came together pretty well, aside from my terrible fabric choice.

This is some mystery almost-certainly-synthetic slippery horror. It was not easy to cut out accurately and it doesn’t iron at all, it just curls up. I’m frankly amazed the shirt turned out as okay as it did!

You can see above it looks a bit wrinkled, but there’s not much I can do about that given than the iron just makes it worse!

You can’t really see it but there is a pocket! It’s on my left (the right of the photo). I didn’t pattern match it – that would have been impossible! – but the fabric is so busy it disappears in the photos.

I made the size 38 and didn’t make any fitting changes – this is why I like making quite loose-fitting things! I actually think the fit across the back is okay (if you ignore the fact that the fabric looks terrible!). I really like how it sits lower at the back than the front, I think it’s a nice design detail that makes the shirt look a bit more interesting.

I made view A which has long sleeves, a rounded collar and it’s supposed to have hidden buttons. I say supposed to because I clearly did something wrong in the construction because I ended up with the bit that should have folded back over where the buttons would be next to the other part of the button band, so it looks like I’ve got a double button band. I didn’t realise until I’d sewed the entire things together, though. And weirdly the collar seemed to fit okay considering the body of the shirt was longer than it should have been! I just did the button holes down the middle of the 2 bands and it looks okay – no-one has commented on it anyway! (If they did I would just say it was deliberate ;))

I think my favourite thing about this pattern is the adorable collar. I just really like the shape of it and I feel like it’s quite flattering on me too, which is a bonus! I think I’ll try the version with the grandad-style collar too (and the short sleeves) to see if it looks as nice.

I found the instructions pretty clear, though there were a couple of times I found myself googling to see if there was a sewalong (which there isn’t, sob!). I think I mainly psyched myself out about the sleeve plackets because I’d read other blog posts that said the instructions weren’t clear. But actually once I’d worked out which placket went on which sleeve (it wasn’t clear to me which was the back of the sleeve in the diagrams), the instructions were perfectly clear. I think I’ve done this before – notably with the welt pockets on my Freemantle Coat – where I read all the instructions and think ‘what?!’ but then when I actually do the steps, the instructions make sense and it all comes together.

I definitely want to make this again but in a more cooperative fabric! I think this is a good work shirt – it looks equally nice tucked into a skirt (in these photos my navy drill Simplicity 2451) as it does over skinny trousers. I also kind of want to copy the cream sleek one in the pattern photos – and do the button band right so the buttons are actually hidden! In other news I have quite a bit more of this fabric. I’m thinking a skirt lining possibly? Any other suggestions for a pain-in-the-arse-but-pretty-fabric?