Over to the Dark Side

Okay; I've finally succumbed and, yes, I know I'm WAY behind the times.  LOL.  I'm so inured to the Big 4 pattern makers that branching out to an independent was scary.  I have had several Sewing Workshop patterns for years but have never made them up.  I've always thought them cute but just not on me, but couldn't resist buying them anyway.  Sooooo, after seeing several friends in my OK in Stitches group wearing their versions of this Independent pattern maker, I've taken the plunge.  I've just made up my first Liberty shirt.  Just going by my measurements, I started with the large.  It's supposed to correlate to a 16-18. 

I wanted to show you a close-up of how pretty this fabric is.  It's been marinating in my stash for about 20 years.  I know I purchased it in Florida but I don't remember the fiber content.  It does drape just like rayon challis though so I thought it would be the perfect candidate for this style shirt.

If you look closely enough, you'll see the top-stitching line of the enlarged back label.

A close-up with my embroidered grograin label.  I enlarged the back facing so I could apply the label.

And the front.  The sleeves are long and fit me well, but I'll wind up rolling them up just like I've shown here.  The next time I make this, I'll cut the sleeves down to 3/4 length and reduce the shoulders by 3/4".  They felt a bit large, almost drop shoulder looking.   But on the whole, I love the shirt.  I love the angular hem and the drapey, comfortable feel of it.  And even though there are no darts, it didn't look or feel like I needed to perform an FBA.

Here you can see the angular hem from this side shot.  It doesn't look like 20 year old fabric does it?  LOL.

Notice that I have the collar lying down versus up in the pattern photo.  I felt it was floppy and just decided to wear this way instead. 


Next I'm working on one of the SHAPES collabaration patterns by Louise Cutting and Linda Lee.  It's called the 9 Lives Vest but I'll be making a shirt out of this version.

Later!