I've been wanting to move my blog away from Blogspot for a while but could never be bothered to actually do it. This week was the tipping point though, and I've now fully migrated over to https://patsypoomakes.wordpress.com/ . The blogspot address will remain here but all new posts will only appear at https://patsypoomakes.wordpress.com/ . There are lots of reasons for the move but my biggest one is how hard Blogger has made it for people to subscribe to receive new posts via email. It's such a basic requirement but apparently, they think it's too much to offer. I'm basing this purely on how I myself prefer to consume this stuff. I can't be arsed with feed readers anymore and emails are easy and convenient. When I receive one, if I fancy reading it, I will click through to it and, if not, I'll just delete it. Another reason is the spat between Google (owners of Blogger) and Instagram/Facebook/Meta. I don't even know if this is still the case anymore
I've already told you about my first Kalle dress here but this version is different enough that I thought it warranted its own blog post. It took me ages to make one Kalle; now I've made 2 and I can see that this may well become a trusty old favourite.
My inspiration came from this post by Jaclyn on Instagram. I have wanted a candy-striped shirt for EVER and I loved Jaclyn's take on it. Quite by chance, I had only just bought this linen on the Lamazi fabrics website and a lightbulb went off. I bought a 1.3m remnant but they have restocked it now.
Man, how I love sewing linen! Ugh, it's like a very polite and well behaved child: it does EXACTLY what you tell it to! What's not to love? And wearing it is even better. This whole outfit is linen and I want to wear it everyday, for the rest of my life. Please and thank you.
I know I've already made the dress version but this is quite different in a lot of ways so I will go into more detail than I normally would for a repeat project. Obviously, I made the cropped version but the sizing remains the same - still a 4.
This thing is cropped, people. Like, *REALLY* cropped. I added an inch to both front and back and it *just* covers my bellybutton. I really like the length at the back but I will add another inch to the front next time. I love the way this turned out but its length is quite limiting. I wouldn't feel comfortable pairing it with something that didn't have as high a waist as these trousers, for instance (they are Simplicty 8092 and there's a blog post about them here).
The hem is finished with a facing, which was a first for me. It was a faff to attach but the result is so clean and polished! It was 100% worth the effort.
I deviated from the instructions on 2 points. One was how to finish the facings at the edges, where they meet the placket. This won't make sense unless you are actually making the shirt but the pattern tells you to fold the edge over to the wrong side as you're attaching the facing. To me, that looks terrible and sloppy. Plus, in this case, I'd have the hidden placket, the button placket and the facing on top, which would be 3 double folded layers, stacked upon each other. Awful.
What I've learned a while back and have been doing ever since is to fold the edges of the facings to the right side of the work when I'm sewing them on. Counter intuitive, I know. But once the facing is turned over to the inside, the edge flips around and you have a very sharp and clean corner. I should have taken photos of what I mean, I know. But I promise it works.
I'm also very proud of how my hand tacking went here. I used a ladder stitch - I think that's what it's called - or, if you're a knitter, a mattress stitch and my thread has completely disappeared into the fabric. It looks so perfect!
The other thing I did differently was attaching the band collar. It's basically a collar stand, but the pattern piece is a little narrower. It looks a little more delicate, which is a nice touch. However, the way the instructions tell you to attach it is so absurd that I can't see how it can work. Maaaaaaybe with a very fine and delicate fabric but I'm still not convinced. I did try their method at first, which has you starting your stitching from about the middle of the button placket. I had to roll the shirt out of the way... I know. It's so confusing I'm not even going to attempt to explain it. The result was a hot and wobbly mess. Although I didn't realise it was so awful until I'd clipped and trimmed my seams, because you can't turn it out before you do that.
Despite this, it was a very enjoyable project and I am incredibly pleased with my candy-striped shirt of dreams! It turned out just as I had hoped and I will be making more for next year.