Tropical Melilot Shirt

 

Today, we are talking shirts. how much I love wearing them, less so making them!

This is my Deer and Doe Melilot in just about the most eye watering print I think i've ever made anything in. 

Ever.

This was a wearable muslin from a Kauffmann Cotton Lawn I got back in the Minerva Craft Blogging Days.

The fabric I have earmarked for my proper version is my Atelier Brunette Bye Bye Birdie in Sky, but I wanted to check the fit. 

I've worn this shirt so much more than I had planned to, the print is almost tropical and on a lovely sunny day its great to chuck on and wear open.

I am ridiculously excited in these photos, mainly because I'm at Virginia Woolf's house in Rodmell.

Its not too far away from home but i'd never been before. The garden is stunning but sadly you can only see three rooms in the house. 

The flowers were perfect and I skipped happily through the orchard, past Virginia's writing hut investigating what fruit they had growing. 

(Piemaker had to put up with me squealing at him when I saw a Mulberry tree, cue epic eye rolls!)

This being a wearable muslin, I paid absolutely no attention whatsoever to the print matching on this shirt, but it turned out rather well. I cut a 42 and I could go down a size through the side seams but I wouldn't want to mess with the fit at the sleeve too much. This style sleeve works well for my narrow shoulders but the cuff detail takes some getting used to. Due to the sort of cantilever effect of the sleeve pulling downwards, it peaks the top of the cuff a little. 

It gives it nice shape, but it feels a bit odd to wear at first.

I'm loving the shaping or lack of, in this shirt and the print doesn't overwhelm as I thought it would.

Construction wise this was a pretty easy make. I opted for the short kimono style sleeve rather than faff with tower plackets on the long version.

The only thing fancy I went for was the invisible button placket.

Now i've made a couple before this but this one had me flummoxed! The diagram wasn't giving me any answers and in the end Piemaker's origami skills were drafted in. He would fold one bit and tell me to stitch. I'd run back to the machine and back to him for the next fold. 

Haphazard but hey, it worked!

I will be making this shirt again and I might even entertain the tower plackets, but I think I can live without the invisible placket.

It did come in handy towards the end though, did you spot I did horizontal buttonholes?

I'm calling it a design choice!

Me Made May 17: The Review

We made it through guys! This is the first year I felt I stuck pretty well to the pledge and got photos most days. It was so inspiring using instagram but by the end my photos got more and more ratty, apologies about that I got photo fatigue!

So on reflection I'm pleased with a lot of the new stuff i've made recently. A few old favourites made appearances too and I gave myself permission to chuck away some of the unworn items and make space for new things! So a reminder of what I said in my previous post

What was your pledge Stevie?
I'm worked on making the most of what I have. I'm pleased to have a wider variety of garment types in my wardrobe than I ever have before, but some are from before my weight loss. I'd like to wear items and decide the fate of some that have been languishing too long, either because of fit, or the style is not quite me anymore.

So my main aims within May were:

• Wear all the 33+ items of clothing I have in one way or another - There was lots I didn't wear. I don't think it means I have to chuck it all. But some of it can definitely hit the charity shop. I had some items that weren't season appropriate, or are definitely too ratty to be seen on the internet (Virginia leggings i'm looking at you!) 

• Work out what needs replacing/ refashioning/chucking - So I've already put my Leopard print wrap dress, my brown Oslo cardigan of doom, my recently made burgundy Mesa dress along with a few t-shirts that were too big into the charity box. It feels good but they need to leave the house sharpish, lest I pull them back in!

• Pick out and analyse some of my favourite RTW items - Why do I like them? Fit? Design? Fabric? - I did do this but I think it deserves a separate post. 

• Colour analysis: What are the main colours in my me made wardrobe? Am I happy about this? What else would I add. - I love blue on me, I do not have anywhere near enough blue in my me made wardrobe! I wore my new Ogden cami a lot and my blue chambray archer that could use a long sleeved friend. Pretty much any tone of blue would be good but i've got lots of aqua in the stash I need to sew up! Particularly jersey tops. I'm happy with the corally tones I already have but they could be improved with more daytime wear. I have a few lovely pieces of coral fabric I could sew up!

In conclusion I definitely need more tee's! More jeans! More cardigans, I wore an awful lot of my recently made Lark Tees and Kirsten Kimono tees along with my two Driftless cardigans. I'm pleased to say I wore my Ginger jeans a lot (They will be blogged soon I promise!) plus I was wearing a lot of me made pjs and  I will need more fun garments and use some more prints!

How did you find Me Made May 17?