Top #64 Christmas Shirt
So there have been many items I've made over the past year that I never got around to taking photos of, let alone blogged about, but I made sure to take some photos of my Christmas shirt while I was up in the wintery wonderland of northern Michigan! It was freezing, so by the time I looked at the photos and noticed my bra strap was showing (mostly because I was hunched up to try and keep warm), I was too lazy to go back out in the cold and retake them, so excuse that.
I originally set out to make the Merchant and Mills Top #64 in a leopard stretch twill, but I was horribly indecisive on the sizing. According to the size chart, I should be between a size 12 and 14, but I wanted it to be a bit more fitted than the pattern photos (see below), and according to the finished measurements, I would technically still have an inch or two of ease everywhere even in the size 8.
Particularly since I was planning to do it in a (somewhat) stretchy fabric, I thought I could get away with sizing down. I knew I also wanted to do it in a woven fabric, so I traced the pattern on the size 10 (first time in a long time using a printed pattern instead of a pdf), which gave me 4" of ease in the bust, and more everywhere else.
Because I was still nervous about the sizing, I sewed up a muslin, again for the first time in ages. I'm trying to be much more thoughtful and intentional about sewing, so it's worth the extra time. Because the bodice is split into two pieces at the pocket line, I just sewed up the top half with the sleeves. The fit was pretty good, but I wanted the pocket line to be higher (plus shorter in general for the whole thing), the pockets to be a few inches deeper, and the sleeves definitely to be shorter, so I adjusted the pattern to remove about 3" from the top bodice piece, and about 2" off the sleeves. Also, the pattern had a seam line down the center front and back, and has a lot of optional top-stitching. Because my fabric was on the busy side, I eliminated the center seams and decided to leave off the top-stitching.
I then cut out my leopard fabric and went to serge all the edges and spent way too much time fiddling with the threading, which I had to redo over and over. I gave up on my stretch twill, and decided to switch over to the woven version which I was planning, and wear it for Christmas.
The fabric I was planning on using was actually the original fabric I bought the pattern for, which was a really soft buffalo plaid from Fabric.com. I cut it out exactly with the pattern alterations I already did for the stretch version, with one exception. The original vision I had for this fabric was a photo I had saved on Pinterest for years now, and featured a split neck:
I originally set out to make the Merchant and Mills Top #64 in a leopard stretch twill, but I was horribly indecisive on the sizing. According to the size chart, I should be between a size 12 and 14, but I wanted it to be a bit more fitted than the pattern photos (see below), and according to the finished measurements, I would technically still have an inch or two of ease everywhere even in the size 8.
Particularly since I was planning to do it in a (somewhat) stretchy fabric, I thought I could get away with sizing down. I knew I also wanted to do it in a woven fabric, so I traced the pattern on the size 10 (first time in a long time using a printed pattern instead of a pdf), which gave me 4" of ease in the bust, and more everywhere else.
Because I was still nervous about the sizing, I sewed up a muslin, again for the first time in ages. I'm trying to be much more thoughtful and intentional about sewing, so it's worth the extra time. Because the bodice is split into two pieces at the pocket line, I just sewed up the top half with the sleeves. The fit was pretty good, but I wanted the pocket line to be higher (plus shorter in general for the whole thing), the pockets to be a few inches deeper, and the sleeves definitely to be shorter, so I adjusted the pattern to remove about 3" from the top bodice piece, and about 2" off the sleeves. Also, the pattern had a seam line down the center front and back, and has a lot of optional top-stitching. Because my fabric was on the busy side, I eliminated the center seams and decided to leave off the top-stitching.
I then cut out my leopard fabric and went to serge all the edges and spent way too much time fiddling with the threading, which I had to redo over and over. I gave up on my stretch twill, and decided to switch over to the woven version which I was planning, and wear it for Christmas.
The fabric I was planning on using was actually the original fabric I bought the pattern for, which was a really soft buffalo plaid from Fabric.com. I cut it out exactly with the pattern alterations I already did for the stretch version, with one exception. The original vision I had for this fabric was a photo I had saved on Pinterest for years now, and featured a split neck:
This is clearly a dress with set-in 3/4-length sleeves, so I made a few changes, but I haven't sewn any raglan sleeves in a while, and wanted to give them a whirl. Anyhoo, to make the split neck, I just carefully cut down the center until it looked good, and then adjusted the facing to match. Sidenote - even though it doesn't show, I had enough fabric to carefully match up my plaids on the inside! :)
I'm getting ahead of myself here, so I'll go back and talk construction. Overall, super simple to sew. I even cut and matched up notches, and it's funny how much more precise you can be when you do that! Because my serger was being annoying, I did just pink all the inside seams, which is annoying me now, but oh well, I had to make a short-cut somewhere. I did manage to match up my plaid on the pocket seams pretty well, and I did attempt it on the sleeves, which are two pieces each, but for some reason I ended being off like half an inch from front to back, so those didn't line up and I didn't even attempt to line up the raglan seam. All the seams coming together at the top got a bit bulky with the flannel, and I did try to grade it and steam it into shape, but it doesn't lay quite the flattest there (also contributing to the exposed bra strap, I'm sure). All in all, it's a good project that's fairly quick, and I'll definitely be making it again in leopard!
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