Part 2 of Vivienne Westwood Draped shirt - Updated

When I made this shirt I was about to go away to Somerset so originally intended to take a photo of me wearing this and update then and it was set to go live in the future while I was away which is a Blogger function I do not usually use. However it has been well publicised that people get their homes burgled when doing such things so unfortunately until now there has been no picture of this garment on me. Well here are the photos of my lovely Vivienne Westwood top.

 I found you need to tie this to one side else it splits at the front. Other than that its really easy to wear. Its a very comfortable top though not I reckon useable for working in a corporate environment which is a shame. Its great with jeggings and jeans tho!














What I also never realised till I actually tried this on is its a hoody as well!



Showing how the hood works was not so easy in the high beach winds on Westwood Ho!in Devon, so I got this photo later to show you.

Once I got to sewing this shirt is very fast to make. It went together easily.

Main body of shirt

Holes are the armholes

Ripped edges so no hems as such

Line ripped edge to where edge of sleeve will be

I lost my pins so used weights.

Yoke and pocket and button facing

I interfaced the yoke and button hole facings. No reference says to do this but it seemed a good idea since its the yoke keeps everything in shape and I want my button holes strong.

 Sleeves inserted with yoke into each hole:

Used self - bias binding to bind inner sleeve holes - Very neat finish will have to do in other garments!

Its coming together well. Just need to do the buttons now:

Everything was really good until I went to make my button holes. Now here is my practice button hole using my automatic button hole foot.

 Excellent! Just about perfect. 

So why did it do both my REAL buttonholes so badly?

Its not the first time I have had this happen. Seems I can sew the mock-up no problem but when I start to sew the real ones it goes wrong. I un-did one of them 3 times and in the end settled for not quite right but hopefully they will not just fray appart. At least once they have my blue buttons ( found in my Great Aunt's button stash box) which hide much of the problem - they look ok but seriously not very good.

In fact I am so sick of this next time I intend to use my very old Brother and do manual button holes since at least I can usually get them to work. They may be hassle but I can control much better what is going on with them. This auto button holer seems to lose the plot half way through and finish it off before its sewn the half of the second side. Well I give up. Best to just do them with my old machine from now on.

Other than the button hole problem this shirt has tension stitching problems which I could not sort out. Even got the machine manual out so maybe its a fabric choice problem. Either way the stitching is a bit dodgy too.Not sur eif its the top thread too tight ( probably) or bottom too loose but I could ot get it to work right.

 Anyway here is the shirt on Harriet:

having worn this several times now I am wondering if my second ( top ) button should actually be on the outside not on the yoke where it is shown onthe pattern. I think it may look better if I make this change. Maybe its just the placement of where to put it anyway thats marked because there are no instructions at all for this top.

Just for the record we stayed in a  lovely little cottage on Exmore in Somerset and the views are amazing. We went for a cottage because Reggie dog is nearly 15 years old so needs a bit of comfort and would struggle with a tent or caravan especially if it rained all the time. The cottage was lovely except for the very politically incorrect ad very 1970s humour toilet which I just have to show you:

 I absolutely hate this kind of 70s "humour". Its dated and sexist and only funny to over 70s I think. Horrible!

 Other than that the cottage was qwell equipped and a nice place to stay. Here are some views of the local Exmore area:

There seemed to be foxgloves everywhere which must flower there much later than in the Midlands.


I really do love foxgloves. Our current garden occassionally has a few which seem to just arrive, but I find it difficult to get them to come back the next year.

 It was a bit frustrating because Reggie is so old so we could only explore the easier bits so I am intending to go back to Exmore in the future when I will be able to actually do some serious exploring. All in all though well worth the week off to visit this bit of the country. Also interestingly I live in "the sticks" so am used to having to drive for food etc. However the shops are not too far away and its at most 6-10 miles to get for example bread.My city dwelling friend think this terrible but its really not difficult. On Exmore you are really away from the normal world with a 20-30 mile drive to the nearest supermarket or use a very expensive local shop. I am used to going to Devon, Somerset and Cornwall but have never felt that isolated since my childhood back in the 70s so if you realy want to get away from everything Exmore is a very good place to visit!

I originally wrote this post before going away and wearing this and I thought it is a lovely top and I seriously like this, but I was not so sure I will make more just because I thought it may not be that wearable in real life but its simple to make so maybe once I discovered how to wear it I will want to make more. This top though I love!

 

Well as it turns out I am definitely going to make at least one more and maybe in a more interesting fabric because I originally thought if it had for example skulls or flowers I may not handle wearing this. 

Now I am pretty sure for "play" I will love another one so thats on my list of need to makes now. 

Thanks for visiting and if you like the design I serously would suggest making one.
Link to pattern is in my previous post on this shirt.

Bracken

Vivienne Westwood draped shirt free pattern

So as promised in my last post I am checking out FeyrTrade's new Craftsy class 
in order to make some sportswear. Then I gets a new post from her and it leads me slightly indirectly to  a very interesting fashion book which looks like a thesis and in this thesis is a link to this pattern.

Well how could I resist this challenge. I printed the pattern and went to put together only to find its a total nightmare man!

So I google it and I find a very helpful post here:
https://miss-minoes.blogspot.com/2015/04/sew-along-worlds-end-drape-shirt-part-1.html

Sadly the blogger who wrote this did not put a very good photo up of this but it still helped me loads as did the Worlds End pattern page itself since it has a photo of the pattern on the fabric.

And I have this boring fabric which is a polycotton stripe shirting type of fabric. I thought it might make a work shirt but to put all that time and effort into making something so boring is just not me. I prefer ( sin of all sins!) to go and just buy one if I need it. It will probably look better and be more finished than anythng I currently make so no. No shirt making from any boring fabrics. If I am going to make a shirt it needs to be unique so out of some fabric I can buy.

But for this pattern YES! Just perfect I think.

So here is my very messed up pattern - after seeing this folks you will believe anything is possible and you know what I reckon this is actually going to make me a lovely drape shirt despite my mess of pattern making.

So you want a laugh - look at this:

 I simply could not work out where toput the papers:

My floor is not big enough.

I have oodles of rugs everywhere since my 14 year old dog falls over and slips on the laminate so we have small ( washable cos he is also incontinent sometimes) rugs everywhere and the floor is covered in them.

Of course common sense says I should have picked them up first but I somehow did not realise how big the pattern is or that it does not go together like most normal ( eg Burda) patterns do at all. The pages are not sequential. So in the end I ID'd the sleeve, pocket, yoke and realised the  square that is front and back and has two holes for the sleeevs/yoke to attach to is actually a rectangle :

MY Rectangle measures as follows:

123cm ( neck and hem side) x 154cm (sides) after ripping off edges. Armholes are situated: from RHside 42cm, LHside 39cm, 11cm accross armholes, 16.5cm top/bottom, 51cm between armholes 34-35cm from upper edge, 70-72cm to lower edge. Arm/sleeve top is longer not shorter edge so givinga  big cowl neck.

 Then placing onto fabric - I had about 2m of this striped stuff:

 Totally mad and the worst put together pattern ever!

 Its the sleeve holes matter and distance between each sleeve hole and ech side and top/bottom etc.

 Then this huge rectangle did not fit on my table:

 Still its a Vivienne Westwood so probably has a slight bit of leeway I am thinking:

 Then I realise I have no pins. As in to cut out with cos I left them round a friends! Well this is possible to do I reckon with just some weights so I raid the kitchen for appropriate heavy jars:

and then I cut out the 2 sleeves, 2 yokes, buttonhole facings and pocket:

First I line up the sleeve pattern to the ripped edge:

 Then the yoke:

 And pocket and button hole facing:

 I have already realised I should probably use interfacing on the yoke so will do that and then show you when I have finished. 

You can see the final result and my wonderful Vivienne Westwood top here.
Thanks for visiting

Bracken