Brain fail on an exciting title but you get what you came for with this one.
The shirt saga continues, but with slightly better results than last week!
I'm a sucker for Helen's Closet patterns and as soon as she dropped the new Cameron Shirt I snapped that up. It's a unisex pattern so plenty of making opportunities with this one.
The shirt is dartless and 'boxy' in style with all the classic shirt elements you might expect. Collars, plackets, pockets, cuffs, the lot.
On the measurement chart I fit into my usual 16/18 for Helen's Closet patterns so I cut that out of some viscose I'd stashed from Sew Anonymous. I was going for 'wearable toile' but as soon as I started making up the shirt I really wanted it to work as the fabric grew on me.
The pattern instructions with this shirt are insane. And by that I mean voluminous, detailed and cover every potential aspect of a shirt you could possibly need. The pattern would be worth buying for the instruction booklet alone. That must have taken some serious time and effort to write.
That being said I immediately got myself in a muddle with the button placket. It has you do some fancy move where you flip and edge stich - this was a 'bit much' for my causal toile and so I just did the old 'fold and fold again' placket. Plackets for the non-fancy if you will.
The pattern also got some feedback that the collar stand was tricky to insert as it's fairly short in comparison to the neckline. An updated pattern piece was released but even with the new one I did have to stretch it in a fair bit.
The finished shirt initially came out really big at the shoulders. The shoulder seam extended a few centimeters past where it should have landed. In an attempt to save the toile that I now liked, I was advised to take the sleeves out again, recut the top shoulder at the armhole to about a size 12/14 and then re-insert the sleeve. I'm so glad I took the time to do that as it works a treat now!
It is a very large shirt though, and perhaps I could have sized down all over however I think it might be the style of the shirt.
I then found a viscose remnant in this gorgeous lilac colour from Sew Hayley Jane outlet. Spurred on with my toile I cut into this and remade the shirt with all the tweaks done to the pattern.
I love adding buttons on my machine and found a neat little trick to put some wonder tape on them to hold them in place under the presser foot.
The curse of the second make hit once more. I haven't a clue why but this version, despite being smaller (in theory) turned out bigger than the first! I think the fabric stretched out when I was making it potentially.
I also messed the collar up quite badly, went to recut another but didn't have any fabric left (not even a patchwork version to squeeze out of leftovers). So I just finished it off without it. Not sure about this style but it works as a shirt nonetheless.
So to summarize I prefer the wearable toile. However as I look back at these photos it still looks a bit sizeable and not particularly flattering from the back! It's a long shirt and probably looks better tuicked in or with slimmer leg trousers. At least it's casual and comfy...
I'd make it again I think, but the next one shall be for the husband so will be interesting to see how it fits on him.
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