SWAP item #8

My final item from my wardrobe pattern - Vogue 2813. I made the shirt from red silk twill.



I love the look of the high buttoned collar and the long cuffs. I think the shirt has a bit the look of a groom shirt and this is one of the things that made me think of heirloom embellishing. My problem is I don't know what "not your usual" is this... not your usual silk shirt? Please suggest anything if your brain feels more rested and creative than mine right now :)

So, I added a double pintuck with lace, sewn with my pintuck foot, a double needle and cording. See here a factsheet describing this technique. The pintuck and lace where thus placed as to camouflage the waist dart (you can see it in the pic where I show the wrong side of the shirt). After making this pintuck, the shirt looked like it needed something else, that unique pintuck looked a bit... isolated. Therefore I added two more corded pintucks. I knew that the shirt had plenty of ease around the chest and waist so I could afford to loose the bit that was taken into the pintucks.




And wrong side of the shirt - you can see the cording in the pintucks. You can also the finishing of the seams - not French this time, but baby seams (as described by Claire Shaeffer in High Fashion Secrets - see, buying all those books really pays off).



The hem is finished with store-bought satin bias (the same that I used on the hem of my not your usual A-line skirt).

Here's a close-up of the lace and the double button stand (loved this one, first time I try it).



And here's a pic of the collar, I find it really clever: the upper collar is in one piece and cut on the bias, the under collar is made of a collar and a stand and is cut on the grain. Thus, you do have a stand incorporated (and you can see the collar standing quite high on the neck) but you also have the advantage of the bias upper collar wrapping so nicely over the stand.



There's a buttonhole in the under collar (and my advice, if you make this pattern, is to read the instructions very carefully; otherwise, you risk messing up both the collar - the buttonhole must be sewn very early in the process, and the double button stand). The collar can be worn both buttoned or unbuttoned, but I prefer it buttoned. Likewise, the cuffs can be worn as in the picture or turned and looking like French cuffs.

The placket of the shirt is described in this post.

That's it for now. Please give me ideas about naming this shirt. And stay put. I have a little black dress to show you, together with two more small tutorials.