Now Shirts

One of my favorite patterns is the Sewing Workshop Now shirt.  I have made a couple in the past, and although I didn't think I would wear them, they ended up being one of my favorite garments.  I wanted to make a couple of lightweight shirts to take to Uganda, and also wanted to teach my friend Sylvia how to make a shirt.  She did GREAT with this pattern.













The first one I made out of light weight Merlot linen from Fabrics Store.  The next one is a sheer crinkled georgette type fabric, probably polyester.  I changed the sleeve length and overall length of the shirts.

One of the things I like about this shirt is the unusual collar construction.  You kind of use the burrito method to put it on, so there is no hand stitching or stitching in the ditch.  Another nice thing is that the entire shirt is constructed with French seams.  This makes it perfect for a ravelly or sheer fabric.  On the sheer shirt, I used baby hems for the bottom and turned up a double hem to the outside on the sleeve.

My Babylock Ellageo was giving us fits with the buttonholes, so I dug out my trusty Pfaff hobby machine.  We could have made the buttonholes on the Aria, but I wanted Sylvia to learn how to make a 4-step buttonhole.  These buttonholes turned out perfectly every time!  (I'll have to snag a picture next time she comes over.)  Now she knows how to make great buttonholes on a four-step machine.











She has a really cool vintage Nelco machine (sz217) and we just got it back from the repair man in Fresno.  Going into his shop is like going into a sewing machine museum.  There is every make of old sewing machine and every type you've ever seen.  He is very knowledgeable about every little detail of sewing machines.  We were just getting her machine out of the case to show him and he knew the model number  before we even showed it to him.  He said the machine is well known for its quality among the sewing repair community.

The next few days will include very little if any sewing.  After that, we will be sewing maniacs getting ready for our trip to Uganda.

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.