Saturday, December 29, 2012

Now #2




Today I whipped up (uh, I'm slow, it took me most of the day) another Now Shirt.  This time I narrowed the front and made the adjustments I mentioned in my last post.  I added 3" in length and shortened the sleeves by 1"
Here I'm wearing the collar unbuttoned, which is how I will probably wear it most of the time.




I love the finished seams on this top.  Even the armhole seams are finished with French seams.  I don't know how possible this would be to do with a regular set in sleeve, but this has a really shallow sleeve cap, which does make it possible.











I also like the way the collar is completely finished on the inside (with no hand sewing!)













I think the fit on this one is much better and I really like it.    You can see in the picture below that the arms are pretty full, but not too floppy.  I am not used to such a high neckline though, so I know I will probably never button the top button.  I wear turtle necks and use scarves all the time, but for some reason, I just don't find a button up collar flattering on me unless it is unbuttoned!






A word about quilting cottons.  You do not have to avoid them like the plague.  I have found that there are certain brands that are usually of better drape and hand than others.  Two that I have used successfully are Moda and Benartex.  This one happens to be Benartex and has a super silky hand and nice drape.  It is lightweight, almost like a lawn, but not as sheer.  I really like it.  This fabric is dark red, orange and purple.  I wanted to use purple buttons, but tried 4 or 5 different colors of purple thread to make the buttonholes, and none of them looked right.  I even made a trip to the fabric store to buy there "right" purple, but then when I did the sample buttonhole, I was not happy with it.  I ended up doing the buttonholes in red, but still used the purple buttons.






5 comments:

Mrs K said...

Very nice fit and love the color. I'll have to check out the quilting cottons you mentioned.

gwensews said...

Another nice blouse. You can change that pattern a lot of ways. I have avoided quilting cottons because so many are stiff, even after washing. I will keep in mind the Benertex and Moda though, next time I'm around a quilting shop.

Judith said...

Great shirt, and love the collar with no hand sewing - bonus!

Anonymous said...

I LOVE the pattern! I can't believe you made that in one day :) I sure wouldn't call that slow though..lol.

Martha said...

So, so pretty! I just made my first Now, and like you, I added length. Just a wonderful blouse and I especially like the colors in yours.