Tuesday 25 April 2017

Completed: Modified Jean Granville

Jean Granville Shirt
Okay, so this shirt is not actually denim, but it was with the jean fabrics at the store and it has that look to it, so I went with it. It's a very lightweight, loosely woven cotton with little white flowers in a diagonal pattern all over it, and it is adorable.

Jean Granville Shirt

For this shirt, I used my Sewaholic Granville base and altered the yoke to give it a pointed/heart-shaped/western look. It was a little tricky sewing it up with the facing and doing the whole "burrito" method thing, but doable by clipping into the seam allowance at the point.

Jean Granville Shirt

I really love how this shirt turned out! It is so comfy, breathable and the colour goes well with my eyes, which are a dark blue as well. I think I may continue to tweak the Granville pattern--I think it flares out a little too much over my rear, visible in the above photo.

Jean Granville Shirt
Here I am with my trusty bicycle who gets me around town, rain or shine. In the background you can see a cherry tree starting to bloom. This year in Toronto is a good one for cherry blossoms!

Cherry Blossoms
They are so pretty ✿✿✿✿✿

Jean Granville Shirt

I sewed up this shirt in 14 hours straight last weekend. It would have taken less time but I totally messed up the sleeves! First I sewed them on the wrong sides, and when I tried on the shirt the cuff plackets were on the tops of my forearms. I was so close to being done I wondered if I could live with it, but decided in the end to do things right so I unpicked those seams. I really, really hate sewing set-in sleeves so it took a lot of willpower to convince myself to do them over again.

Then, when I sewed them on the *right* sides, wouldn't you know I went and attached one of them in the wrong orientation! This time when I tried it on, one sleeve was tight and pulling in the most unflattering way and it turns out I had aligned the undersleeve seam with my back yoke seam instead of my side seam on the bodice! I despaired and then unpicked this sleeve a second time and set it in for the third and final time, correctly. What a disaster!

Jean Granville Shirt

Anyway it all worked out in the end and I am very pleased with this shirt. This is the first time I've sewn the version of the Granville with front pockets, and they turned out well. One is ever so slightly higher than the other, which you can see in the above photo, but you don't really notice when I'm just wearing it around with the top buttons undone. I used this clever trick to get my pockets to be the identical shape and size as each other.

Jean Granville Shirt

Here is my adorable label from the Dutch Label Shop sewn to the inner back yoke. I just love these! They really help make home-sewn garments feel professional and complete.

Jean Granville Shirt
Here's a closeup of my cuffs and placket. These ones turned out really well. I'm thinking of adding a second smaller button further up on the placket since they are long and it will help keep them together better.

Jean Granville Shirt Overall, another make I'm very happy with! This Granville pattern is taking me pretty far! Happy Spring, everyone :)

Tuesday 18 April 2017

Completed: Summer Ruffle Blouse

The weather here is finally starting to sunny up, so I've started thinking about warm-weather sewing. I picked up a bunch of lightweight fabrics for such a thing and one was this lovely rayon with a yellow floral pattern on a white background. It's so drapey and smooth and a dream to wear--but a nightmare to sew!


I wanted to do something a bit different than my go-to standard Granville pattern for this fabric, and I was intrigued by some ruffle shirt patterns I've seen around, like the Suzon by République du Chiffon and Simplicity 4122. However, both these patterns seem to be a boxier cut than I like to wear, so I thought I'd try to replicate the ruffle feature and hack it onto my Granville base, which fits me well in the bodice.


It wasn't too hard to draft a semi-circular front and back yoke to fit, but the rounded neckline was a bit more of a challenge. I ended up with a horseshoe-shaped pattern piece which was super shifty to sew, so even though as drafted it's supposed to be a 1-inch width all the way around, the final collar ranges from 3/4 inch to 1.5 inches at different points along. Oops. I think it still looks fine, but if I make another one of these I will try starching my fabric before sewing to see if that helps with the shiftiness! The neckline bit is kind of like a curved mandarin collar, or just a collar stand. I used this tutorial to help me sew it up properly.


This was my first time sewing French seams, and I think the effect is really good with the lightweight rayon. They do take some time to do--trimming all my seam allowances down to 1/8 inch was terrifying with such a fray-happy fabric! But it worked out in the end. I did manage to sew one sleeve the wrong way round and have to unpick it, thanks to my ingrained impulse to sew with right sides together. That's a hard habit to break.

These photos were taken on a family hike through Ball's Falls Conservation Area in Ontario, which has got to be the most hilariously-named conservation area. Let me know if you can think of another contender.

Ruffle Shirt

It wasn't really that warm out, but it was sunny, so I froze a little to get some pics for the blog. Unfortunately, a lot of them are pretty blown out--the camera used wasn't the best and it was so darn bright, and the shirt is white. Altogether not the best mix for stellar photography.


Here you can see how the ruffle goes over the shoulder to connect to the back yoke. The ruffle pattern piece ended up being 110 inches long (twice the width of my fabric) and scrunched into a 44-inch length to fit around my two curved yokes. Longer than I expected it would be!


I try to avoid selfies on this blog, but with this camera they seem to have better detail than the ones taken from further back. Here you can see the ruffle a bit better, and the floral pattern of the rayon.


I didn't want to go through the trouble of making sleeve plackets and cuffs with this fabric, so I played it safe and drafted little short sleeves for this blouse, and just double turned up the hem. It kind of flares out at the sleeve hem, though, so I might go back and finish the sleeves differently.


There are the lower falls in the background! They are much bigger in the spring when all the winter ice melts. We came here last fall and there was barely a trickle!


One final selfie for fun :)