Sunday morning sewing

Saturday is clean-the-house day around here.  Often, I just shut the sewing room door and ignore it.  This week, I left it open.  Which meant I could wake up on Sunday morning with clear floors, a clear conscience and time to do those oft neglected non-sewing activities.  But the lure of the clear sewing room was too strong.  It would be easy to duck in there and whip up a quick project before my kids had the pancakes on the table.

When I looked up the link for the Eileen Fisher site in my last post, I stopped for a look around.  This project is not a copy of one of her garments, but it was inspired by the feel of her collections.  I started with an OOP Vogue pattern (from 2004) for a raglan sleeved shirt with a wide neckline.

 

My fabric was a cotton sweater knit that I ordered online.  Initially I was disappointed, because it was heavier than I expected and it doesn't have great recovery, but I wore it all yesterday and it was comfy.

 
I cut the back and sleeves as per the pattern.  For the front, I wanted to create a bit of a cowl, but I just wanted to add the extra fabric in the top half, so I first cut the bottom half as per normal (that is not bad cutting...that is me grading out to a Sz 14).

Then I pivoted the pattern to create extra room for the cowl.

I didn't want a very deep cowl.  I also hadn't decided whether to sew the cowl as normal, or have it hang to the outside, or gather up the sides a bit etc.  It was all a bit experimental.

I then sewed the top, except for where the upper part of the front attaches to the seams, so that I could play around with it a bit and decide what I wanted.

I used a blind hem on the bottom and sleeves.  The back and side neckline was finished with woven bias tape, so that the top would not stretch off my shoulders.

Goes nicely with my pajamas and  the remnants of the previous nights' eyeliner, doesn't it.  Don't worry, I'll show you the dress that went with the eyeliner in the next post.