I
bought this fabric about a year ago and had no idea what to make from
it. A quick Google search shows up this print as Alexander Henry so I
assume thats correct. It was sold to me ( via Ebay) as Alexander Henry
100% cotton but I have no idea if this is correct or if its a copy. The
fact its a print that several gothic clothing companies have used and
they used to make very "teen" clothing which I would not wear I found
out later and it kind of put me off making anything from it until I came
across Mood Fabrcs free patterns and boy are there loads of free
patterns there and regular new ones if you sign up to their newsletter.
I
have also been after a tie front shirt pattern for a while but did not
want to fork out for a replica vintage which I know is what Hand Made Jane
has made and its a lovely top but I prefer the 70s version and from
memory this pattern is actually closer to the 70s than 50s shirts with
tie fronts.Thats in the collar the fact this is more 70s tha 50s. The 50s look has a one piece collar. Tho I did have one tie front shirt back in the early 70s that had a seperate waist tie band at the front rather than the extended ties, but that may be one for making at a later date once I get to grips with this Mood pattern.
I cut the second to smallest size - no idea what size that is because I just measured and it was about right but I cut the largest size on the sleeves to give me longer sleeves which will make this more wearable.
I have lots of tattoos which these days are accepted and normal but in
my youth were a big problem. I love them, don't get me wrong. I regret
none of them, but would like a few updating since they are very 80s and
tattooists these days seem more talented than back then or maybe its the
tattoing equipment. I love the fact tattoos are now accepted, but in my
youth they weren't unless you were a punk, goth or biker typeand lets
face it even if you are you have to toe the lie and be "normal" in your
eveny day job. I was but that still meant covering them up for example
at work. I knew of more than one male back in the 80s and 90s who lost
their job when wearing a white shirt to the office and their tatts
showed through. And as for caterers - a very close friend actually had
surgery to remove the tatts from his hands since he could otherwise not
work with food which was what he decided was his ideal job. The world
has moved on since then thankfully, but I still sometimes feel the need
to cover up. I have a particular dislike of cutting my tattoos in half
with short sleeves and I also avoid the sun or at least, although I love
it hot, this current UK weather really suits me, but I do not like
sunburn and I burn very easily. Anyway I feel the occassional need to
wear sleeves so I cut these longer than the pattern and omitted the
turn-up tabs completely because I hate that look. The fact the larger
sizes have longer sleeves is very convenient in this particular pattern -
assuming you print out all sizes. The function to print just the one
size seems not to work on my printer unless I am just doing things
wrong. Not sure if its included with the free Mood patterns anyway but I
just gave upon that several years ago now. It can be better to print
the multi-sizes altho does mean more paper wasteage in some patterns.If
you do print them all tho its very easy to merge two sizes together and
personally I am not a perfect size anything.
I also omitted the pocket. That is an end of product decision because I actually cut two pockets cos I do like my pockets but then I decided I prefer the design simpler because that does not break up the print. I suppose if I was better at sewing I could have attempted to pattern match so the pocket was invisible but its a lot of faff for something I probably will never use and I really prefer the top ( in this fabric anyway) without the pocket.
This pattern has the sleeves cut as one with the body so I suppose Kimono type sleeves. I overlocked everything but then stitched the shoulders and side seams as well since after my recent disaster with woven fabrics coming appart if only overlocked this seems the best way to go. Stronger seams altogether and I do want this to last a while. The collar I constructed by attaching the upper collar to lower collarband before attaching to the neck of the shirt and it all went together with zero unpicking which is brilliant at any time. So I am feeling like I am onto a winner here. I am actually very very pleased with my collar as well which I reckon could pass for a well made RTW collar !If I had known it would work so perfectly I would have taken more photos but I expected to have to do more unpicking and fiddling. Brilliant pattern in fact!
Any regular visitors to my blog will know of my repeated bugbear of the automatic button holer foot on my Janome 8050XL which never seems to work out right. I always test first and it always works but when I do the final real ones it always F**ks up. I am being very polite here since do not want to offend anyone with my bad language!
So this time I decided instead to use my ancient Brother PX-100 which has a three stage button hole function which used to work fine most of the time and lets face it with sewing nothing is ever 100% perfect all the time so this machine makes OK button holes but is not clever. Mind you my conclusion is my Janome is also defo not clever when it comes to this particular task.The Janome also seems to hate zigzagging which is another pain but I will leave that for another day. Mostly its an OK machine.
However no doubt about it my Brother works better. At least with button holes tho I admit its not automatic but also its better with zigzag and also my Brother willtwin needle sticth whereas the Janome won't. So really after considering all this just because the Jnaome is newer its the Brother ( bought froma catalogue about 15 years ago!) is probably the better machine. So finally thats my conclusion. Never mind. I do love the Janome. They have different positives tho right now I am struggling to work out what the Janome does better. It does more but that does nto make it a better machine does it?
Well y old Brother PX100 (which I lost the manual for about 3 houses ago and I have been in the current house going on 11 years! ) gave me perfect button holes so I am very happy this week about that one. A lesson learned here I think. Just becaus you have a newer machine sometimes the older manual one does things better and more reliably.
Anyway my new shirt has sat on Harriet the dress form fora whole week and I have seen it daily - whilst weraing my corporate uniform and its lovely. Today I got to wear it and yes its still a good shirt and I am now going to make a new one because this pattern is awsome. I kid you not.
Honestly if you want a free tie front shirt try this free Mood Fabric pattern.
Thanks for visiting, and I really hope this post gets a few people to try this freebie cos I love it
Bracken
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