Candlewick...

Well here is part of the promised review of a bibbed shirt.  LOL.  I really should have had this done last week.   Life has a habit of getting in the way of fun.  The pattern is Simplicity 3684.  I chose view A.  

And yes I've made it in white, but its a really lovely fine herringbone weave 100% cotton shirting I found with our lovely ladies at the Cloth Merchants.  These ladies provide us with our only local outlet to finer fabrics.  Here in Tulsa, we're pretty limited in fabric availability.  I'm very lucky I'm not totally stuck with just JoAnn's and Hancock Fabrics. 

I'm sorry the picture of the pattern isn't better.  I had to pull it from Simplicity; everytime I tried to take a picture of my pattern, the shiny paper they used totally flashed out with my camera.  And I don't know enough about the dang camera to turn the flash off.  But you can at least get the idea with what I've shown. 

Okay...right off the bat, I've made a few modifications to the pattern.  The view I choose ends at the high hip.  I added two inches for a mid hip length.   Also, I don't like any of the cuff variations shown in the pattern; I prefer a regular cuff.  So I borrowed one from another pattern.  LOL.  This particular pattern has included different pieces for each cup sizes.  So I selected View A size C.  I've also decided to embellish the bib & cuffs with embroidery.  So I shopped my extensive embroidery design collection ( I'm addicted)  for something appropriate and settled on a set of candlewick designs I got locally at a quilting shop that sells Pfaff machines and designs.

I know its a little hard to see, but if you click on it, you'll get a larger picture hopefully be able to get a good idea of the look of the design.  Here is a sew out of the design I chose. Actually, its the design repeated twice, one right next to the other.  I love subtle, white on white, etc.  This piece is going to be a cuff.  I did what I normally do when adding embroidery to a project.  I take the pattern piece and make an outline of it with wash away blue pen and cut it out with enough fabric around to fit in the hoop.  Except, I almost never hoop anything.  I hooped sticky wash away stabilizer in the hoop and positioned the fabric on the hoop.  Embroidered the first design.  Removed it from the hoop.  Cut off the excess stabilizer (keeping the leftover pieces for odd small designs).  Hoop another piece of the same stabilizer and with the use of a printed copy of the design, positioned it on the sticky.  Embroidered the second iteration of the design.   In this fashion, I made embroidered fabric for the 2 front bib pieces and 2 cuffs. 

So far, I've got the darts sewn, fronts contructed, fronts attached to the back and a very narrow hem.  Here's a closeup of the bib.

And here's a side view.

Now I'm at the point where I'm cutting out the cuffs I just embroidered.  I'll be working on the collar and stand next.  Stay tuned.