Stylearc Blossom Top in Liberty Silk

Hello there!  Isn't the light in this photo amazing?  I still get blown away by the amount of light on a sunny day in Perth.

Like many of you, my Easter weekend was pretty quiet.  This gave me the chance to sew a new blouse.  The pattern used is the Stylearc Blossom Woven Top.  It is an interesting style, as the front has Dolman sleeves but the back sleeves are regular sleeves.  I have decided that I am a Sz 12 in Stylearc tops.  I have had this pattern a while, and it was a size 10.  This style is fairly roomy so that worked out okay.  The only change I made was to add some width to the back bodice piece and gather it up to fit the yoke, as the back is where many of my shirts don't fit at the moment.  My only other fitting changes were a square shoulder adjustment and a forward neck adjustment.

The fabric is a Liberty silk, bought from Tessuti.  I bought this fabric before the Covid social distancing came into effect.  I looked at the Pantone colour of the year, and decided that I would make one "good" blouse in this colour to wear "everywhere" I needed to go this year.  Turns out I don't need to go anywhere.  Luckily, this top is so supremely comfortable that I can wear it at home, and I have already worn it a few days since it came off the sewing machine.  With the changes I made to the pattern (see further down), I think this blouse ended up more casual than dressy anyway.

This was my first time sewing with Liberty silk.  It was an absolute dream to work with.  I have never hemmed silk so easily.  I will definitely be buying Liberty silk again.

Helpfully, the right way up is even marked in the fabric selvedge :).

I chose buttons from my stash.  I actually had a lot of royal blue buttons in my stash.  I think this is because the Vinnies where I got several jars of buttons was right next door to a school where the uniform was royal blue.  In the ended, I eschewed the blue buttons in favour of these aquamarine green ones.

I got the last of this fabric from Tessuti.  There was only 1.25 m left.  Even though I didn't have a pattern in mind at this stage, I didn't think that would be enough.  I ummed and ahhed and then I came across the matching jersey fabric.  I used the jersey for the back.  It is a lighter shade than the silk and I think it will fade faster, but I don't mind this effect.  I think it is part of the reason that the blouse is so comfortable.  

I lengthened the blouse 7.5 cm (3 inches) before adding the frill.  I think this might have been a little too much.  Here is a photo of me with the top on before adding the frill.  I had already positioned the buttons and button-holes at this stage.  I still could have adjusted the length a little but couldn't visualise the effect of the frill very well, and decided to forge on ahead.

You can also see that my button placket is only the length of the upper portion of the blouse and the front frill is cut as a single piece.  This was due to fabric shortages.  The button placket is also cut on the cross grain.  The collar band was cut off grain dues to fabric shortages, but because it was interfaced, I didn't think that this was critical.  

The other change I made to the pattern was to cut a yoke lining.  I cut this out of cotton because I thought it would support the jersey fabric better than the silk.  I also didn't have enough fabric for a second yoke in silk.  I'm pretty happy with how the joke lining matches the main fabric.  It made me smile when I was hanging out the washing this morning, so I took a quick pic.

I didn't do my hair before going to the beach, but his is how it looked after being there for just a few minutes.  I can't even blame this on social isolating...I look like this a lot :).

Happy sewing and stay well xx

Marfy 1272 in Liberty Plaid

This is my entry into the PR sewing with plaid competition.

The fabric is a Liberty lawn, purchased from The Fabric Store.  Initially, I was going to sew a loose popover top with this fabric.  Then I was watching an episode of "Death in Paradise" where Florence was wearing a close fit plaid shirt.  I have mentioned before that a lot of my day-to-day wardrobe inspiration does come from Death in Paradise.  Whilst I don't actually live in the tropics any more, it still gets pretty hot here.  I didn't copy Florence's shirt, but rather changed my thinking to a short-sleeved more fitted top.  I remembered Marfy 1272, which I have never made up because fitting clothes with sleeves scares me.  Marfy 1272 is from the 2007 catalogue.  Yep, I've had this pattern for 10 years.  I actually haven't bought a Marfy pattern since, because they are really expensive to get sent here, and I told myself I couldn't buy any more if I hadn't made up the ones I had already bought.  Now I've made this, I am free to peruse the Marfy catalogue once again.

This was sewn for a plaid competition, so there was always going to be a lot of plaid matching going on.  Notice, how I used an unbalanced plaid?  No?  I didn't even know what an unbalanced plaid was until I was reading up in preparation for sewing this.  Now I know that unbalanced plaids are harder to work with than regular plaids, and don't work so well for bias details. Anyway, just so you can fully appreciate my plaid matching awesomeness, I am going to show you the muslin, so that you can see the design lines.  I didn't sew the pocket flaps, epaulets or button tabs on the muslin.

The design has a strong 70's uniform vibe. Which means, that if I ever what to dress like Dwayne or JP from "Death in Paradise", this pattern would be a good place to start!

My plaid is unbalanced, but the thick navy stripes were equally spaced, so I used those as my base for distributing the panels and matching stripes.  

The oblique pocket flaps  are very groovy.  I matched the navy stripes from upper bodice to sleeve flaps.

There are 4 panels in the back, but you can hardly tell, with pretty good plaid matching.  I did cut the collar upside down, so the navy stripes match from collar to yoke, but the pale pink stripes don't.   I didn't think it mattered enough to warrant remaking collar stand and collar (given that I am not very good at sewing collars and find making one set stressful enough).

The design changes I made to the pattern were;

• lengthen top by 2.5 inches
• omit epaulets (only because I did not have enough of the lovely navy buttons).  
• omit belt
• roll up sleeves

 The fitting changes I made were

• 1 cm square shoulder adjustment (affecting back yoke, front, collar and collar stand)
• forward shoulder joint (affecting sleeve)
• narrow chest (affecting front bodice, sleeve flap and side panel)
• added width at the hips

 Here are some more photos of me wearing the top.

The collar is pretty big.  The collar stand is high.  Having the collar so high up on my neck makes the top warmer to wear, so I would probably cut it down a bit if I made another version.

 I decided not to match the sleeve tabs.  I think if it all matches too well, some lovely details get lost.

Here is a sneak peek of what I did with the left-over fabric.  I'll get all the details into a separate blog post.