I made another shirt! Some of you might remember when I made this red and white wearable muslin, and now I’ve finally finished the real deal shirt.

This blouse is a shortened version of the Vogue dress pattern V1152 made in a super soft I dunno what….poly/cotton, probably? I was surprised when I finished this shirt because when I bought the fabric and as it was coming together I was sure that the print was mostly navy blue with some bright flowers splashed across it. Now that it’s finished I can clearly see that the navy blue barely shows at all!!! (And in all the photos it actually looks black. But I swear it’s blue).

After making the muslin I brought the neckline up a full 3.5 inches! It’s definitely way better, but surprisingly I think I’d still need to wear a camisole under it, if only to prevent gaping when I lean over.

I also took a bit out of the front side panels along the princess seams. Even with taking it in a few inches though, I still opted to take the side zipper out. The elastic back and enormous sleeves/armholes made it easy enough to pull over my head and my not-so-awesome zipper skills made the zipper look just a little too obvious.

The shirt has a curved hemline and I tried really hard to keep it from going all wobbly but I had a little trouble. I got the curve above my hip ok (once I ironed it out), but I feel like the lower point as it transitions into the front ended up too sharp.

I had looked up online the secret to making a curved hem and tried stay-stitching it before I sewed it, but it didn’t help. Oh well!

I’m really pleased with how the front detail worked out though. This was my first time doing piping and I think it turned out lovely! I used my zipper foot to sew as closely in to the piping as possible (it also turned out a lot more even and less wonky than in my muslin).

 

I didn’t worry about making pretty seams with this shirt. The fabric doesn’t seem to fray much and it was a more complicated pattern. I thought if I started messing around with French seams I would probably just mess it up.

The pattern instructions suggested a lot of hand sewing – all around the yoke, the sleeve cuffs and the front panel. I didn’t feel like doing that. So wherever I could I just did some top stitching in the ditch instead.

The front shoulder is, I think, the worst seam and the stitching is still barely noticeable. I’m all for quality sewing but why make life harder than it needs to be?

I did however, manage a little hand stitching on the front panel and to tack down the neckline facing.

I’m going to definitely hold onto this pattern, I think it would be great as the dress it is supposed to be. Actually, I wish I had enough of this fabric to make a dress!

Ta-daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!