I’ve been longing for a quick project lately. It seems like all my crafting time is devoted to things not for myself (like my senior collection), or projects that are intricate and time-consuming (my Bayview Street cardigan). I’ve been spending lots of time on these projects, but nothing is done yet!
Enter a quickly made, and very selfishly made shirt:
I took a couple of hours out of my schedule today (very convenient that I’m on my third snow-day, what with the “snowpocalypse” going on here in Chicago!), and whipped this up. In between all the meticulously made things I’m working on, it was delightful to have something I could finish and wear the same day.
I feel a little bit like Minnie Mouse with my velvet bow-tie bow-belt.
I’ll admit I sacrificed some quality on this shirt…. The fabric is a cotton (voile? lawn? batiste? I don’t know how to tell them apart, so it will remain a mystery) from my stash, and I didn’t wash the fabric before cutting and sewing, which means it’s a little stiff still. The side seams are unfinished (don’t tell anyone!). I simplified a pattern I drafted a while back, and in the process I forgot that I have hips! I drew a straight line down from the armhole, and now the shirt is doing that thing around the pant-waist, pooling because it simply isn’t wide enough to fall any further down! Oh well, I satisfied my need for instant gratification.
Now I’m going back to watching the snow-blowing happening outside my window, while eating some potato-fennel-spring-onion-soup. Very blizzard-appropriate.
Pretty! Love the colour. It would look great tucked into a skirt too, and it would hide the waist-hip pooling issue.
I remember reading a blog post ages ago, all about the difference between voile, lawn, batiste.. if I find it, I’ll pass it on!
Oh, thank you Tasia! I actually tried on the shirt with a highwaisted skirt, decided it looked nice, and that I had lots of outfits/pictures with highwaisted skirts, and wondered if I could make it work with pants. Haha! Oh, the thought-processes behind photos… I’ll definitely wear it with skirts, and thanks for keeping an eye out for that blog-post!
Ah, that’s funny that you started by matching it with skirts.. It looks nice belted, too!
I can’t seem to find it, it was well over six months ago! I did find this which talks about the difference between voile and lawn:
http://www.sawyerbrook.com/posts/fabric-blog/voile-vs-lawn/
but if I do find the original post, wherever it was, I’ll pass it on!
Oh, thanks for the link! I’m leaning towards batiste through the description, and definitely not lawn, which sounds very soft and drapey (and now I want to go play in a country full of cottons!) Voile and and lawn both sound like they would make the *best* summer dresses.
Anyways, thanks!
No problem! And thanks for recommending my patterns on Elise’s blog, that was awesome of you to mention me!
Batiste, lawn, voile: I love all three – especially Liberty cotton lawns! Or silk/cotton voiles. Perhaps I just love fabric of all kinds
…anyways, have a good night!
Haha! That’s the sign of an addict… “I like them all!”. And of course I would mention you – you’re a real, solid, independent patternmaker. You’ve earned your spot on lists like those!
I think the post Tasia is mentioning might be by Dreamstress, she does a great one on those differences here and here.
Oo, thanks for the link!