deer & doe – THE COMPULSIVE SEAMSTRESS

I’d been meaning to make a whole bunch of Plantain tees for the girls since I downloaded the free pattern in the summer but it kept getting pushed down the make it pile in favour of more interesting stuff! I did make one for myself – a sort of wearable toile.

I like the overall pattern, the shape is cool, with just enough flare on the lower edge – but… I don’t like the neckline. The scoop is just a little too low for me, makes me feel all exposed and uncomfortable. Daughter No has a bought tee with a similar neckline so I thought I’d finally make one for her.

The fabric is a purple/burgundy jersey I got a fair bit of in the swap at the SewBrum meet. It had belonged to Claire and was about 4 metres worth! I used the remnants of a striped jersey bought at Guthrie & Ghani for another Day to Night Drape top for Daughter No1 for the elbow patches. (The top is made, but I have no photos of her in it yet.)

Daughter No2 opted for the 3/4 sleeve and definitely wanted the elbow patches, thank you very much! This is such a quick top to make, run up on the overlocker and needing the sewing machine only for applying the patches, hemming with a twin needle and top stitching the neck binding, it takes about an hour. (Not counting cutting out)

I should have known to adjust the shoulders for her, but that’s the only necessary adjustment. I still think the neckline is a little too low though. Any thoughts on this? If you’ve made a Plantain (or two) how do you feel about the neckline? Those elbow patches are also not quite on the elbow, they need to come down a few centimetres.

I love the colour of this jersey, and the weight. This is the sort you want have unlimited access to, great drape and texture. I have enough to make a few more tops, but I don’t want to waste anything so I’ll try to be certain before I cut!

It was a little nippy out when we took these photos on Saturday afternoon, I was so hoping to have the vintage jacket in the orange twill done as well, but I’d had too many interruptions. It was finished by Sunday afternoon, but as luck would have it, too late for decent photographs. That’s the one thing that’s annoying about winter, lack of sunshine!

I have a skirt pattern for the plaid from Pendle Stitches & made the toile today. Daughter No2 picked 120 from Burdastyle Magazine 07/2012. I toiled it today & apart from a minor adjustment at the hip and her desire for it to be 4cm shorter & pegged about 4cm narrower at the hem, it’s fine. Tomorrow I’ll get the lining and make the skirt. I still need to find the right pattern for the butterfly print satin, the blouse pattern I’d chosen was not approved….

I’ve made another blouse! *Doing the Happy Dance* A good tune for this particular Happy Dance is Goodluck’s “Le Good Life“. Not heard of Goodluck? – not surprised really! They’re a new South African band & they produce some smashing tunes! Anyhoo, who wants to see the new stuff???

What, you can’t see it?? Silly me, I’m still all wrapped up! Best I remove the jacket – yes..?

Heeehee, just teasing! It was pretty chilly though, but you can get some glimpses around the scarf. Not enough? Humphf, I guess I’ll just get cold then. Here you go!

Well??? Whaddya think?! Me? I love it! It’s turned out better than I had hoped! 🙂 The concealed buttonstand is fab & I think my favourite bit is the collar!

I guess you’d like a bit of info now, would you? Right. Starting with the sleeve, I traced the sleeve block with straight seams to the 3/4 length to be gathered into a narrow sleeve band. They were pretty straight forward. The back bodice has gathers into a yoke. I used the same yoke depth for this as on the Polka Dot blouse from last week, but instead of having the gathers only above the shoulderblades, I added 3cm on the fold in the centre & gathered the entire length. Again I shaped the hem as I have done in all the blouses so far.

The front yoke is 7cm deep, & has three 5mm tucks. The original shoulder dart was altered so I have a small underarm dart & the rest was put into gathers into the front yoke. I doubled both the front & back yokes for a bit of extra strength. For the neckline I first copied the depth of the Jungle January blouse, knowing that I was comfortable with it. The button stand is 4cm wide, so this was removed from the front & then fiddled with to make the tucks & the concealed bit. It gave me a bit of a headache, but I worked it out in paper with all the folds etc before making the toile.

Working out the spacing for the tucks on the front band

The collar is based on a flat collar, like a Peter Pan, but with a low rise. Originally I made it 6cm wide, but after making the toile, I knew it had to be narrower. Only 1cm came off, so I wasn’t too far off! I didn’t use a facing on the inside. The neckline & collar seams are all trimmed to just under 1cm & a bias strip covers all the messy details.

I used my favourite French seams throughout the blouse – even on the sleeve head. This georgette isn’t as transparent as others I’ve used, but why go to all the effort of making something gorgeous if the inside isn’t as good as the out??

The inners... — The inners… French seam on the sleeve on the right, binding strip covering the collar seams on the right & hand stitched inner yoke in the centre

The buttons are some blue tinted mother of pearl that came out of my stash. I wanted something without bulk & the shell buttons are less than 1mm thick! I stitched the front tucked band to the band with the buttonholes on every third tuck, ensuring it would stay down & not go flapping about in the breeze.

That’s another piece of fabric that can consider itself well & truly stashbusted! This means I have the opportunity of buying 1 more piece. I need to start saving my allowances for the Stitching show at the NEC at the end of March. This project also counts as my Sewcialist contribution to #SewBlueFebruary. I may do another, but it’s good to get one in as the month is already halfway through!

I still need to trace & toile the HotPatterns jeans, & I found another of their jeans patterns in my pattern box! I think I will have to do both! 🙂 I have also finally dug out some jersey & traced the Plantain pattern. Let’s see if it fits!

As this blouse has turned out so well, I think I can go ahead now & make another using the navy spot silk chiffon Husband bought me from John Lewis. Can’t wait to see that made up!

Tag: deer & doe

The Plantain

The Midnight Blues