Melilot - What a Star

Greetings Earthlings.

Does it all feel a bit alien right now? In an attempt to crack on as normal I though another blog post was in order - and this time a new pattern! (To me..)

WHY haven't I cracked on with the Deer & Doe Melilot shirt before now?! I'll tell you for why.

I've had this pattern in the stash since it was released, however in my inexperience, I did try this in some super slippy viscose and completely messed up the hidden button placket. Rage ensued - the fabric got recycled - and the pattern went back in the box. And there it stayed.

A few years older and slightly more wiser - and with the knowledge it's ok to ask for help - I revisited this pattern at my weekly sewing class.

Some nice black viscose from Stoff & Stil fit the bill for this - it had been destined for a dress but it turned out to be a little too sheer for that. A top would be fine for it but no-one wants a semi-see-through butt. The fabric itself is jet black and perfect for what I intended with this starry night shirt.

I traced the pattern off again from scratch - Size  46/48 - which is the upper size for this paper pattern (however they have now released larger sizes in PDF format).

In the spirit of 'eat the ugly bug first' I thought I'd tackle the dreaded placket straight away.

With the assistance of The Fabric Wrangler and encouragement of pals I cracked it - lots of marking, lots of ironing, and a folded paper version for reference!

As it turns out, it's one of my favourite features of this shirt - hidden gold stars!!!

I made the long sleeve version as I wanted to test the pattern in full - if that fit no doubt the short sleeve version would be fine.

There were 2 minor alterations made to the pattern:

1. Straightened the collar point (I just don't like rounded collars)
2. I didn't do the proper chimney cuff plackets - I went for a strip of fabric, where you fold it over like bias binding - no idea what this is called properly! This is because I knew I'd mess the other kind up and at this point I liked the shirt and didn't want extra hassle.

The finished item is great! I love the length of the shirt, it's got good coverage for leggings but isn't necessarily a tunic length so also looks smart with jeans etc. The dropped shoulders make it super comfy and it's basically an all round awesome pattern.

 So let's just address the elephant/frog in the room here. Yes there is a star gazing frog on my shirt.

I don't imagine anyone will have been paying that much attention to my ramblings but he did already make an appearance on my Willamette shirt here.

That shirt just never got worn - the wrinkles on the front bothered me and the fabric was a bit too thick. So I unpicked the frog and tried version 2.0. The stars are cut on my Cricut Maker using some Happy Glitter from Happy Fabrics - this stuff is amazing.

Mr Frog and his Happy Glitter choices...

 I'm actually quite chuffed at how I managed to scatter the stars 'randomly' and they extend just over the back and down the sleeve.It's really difficult to capture in the photos but they are 'antique gold glitter'. (The top gold in the pic above)

The shirt has already been worn out in the wild (before the stay at home situation!) and even received some complaints on it's quirky nature. Of course I flashed a bit of placket ;-)

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