Burda 8/2016 Shirts 102 – 104: Three is probably enough for now

(They’re all the same block with variations in sleeves, collars and ruffles, so let’s stick ’em all in one big post, eh?)

This is a super simple darted blouse with a yoke and an ease pleat. You’ve seen and sewn it before. But the flounce and ruffle variations looked like fun, so:

Version 1:

Basic, no ruffles or flounce, using leftover Liberty lawn from a different blouse years ago.

Oh my god. How things have changed. Let’s not discuss that.

Anyway: having learned my lesson that tana lawn does not drape and is not suitable for patterns where drape is required, the remnants were used for a structured pattern with buttons and everything. It was, despite using the sizes dictated by my measurements (40/44), quite loose–not what I was expecting at all. Not a bad thing so long as I wear it with something that it can be tucked into, and frankly the short sleeves and thin fabric make it better for spring anyway.

Still, overall it worked well and justified a fancier second try.

Version 2:

Altered sleeves, front flounce, fabric mixing.

I have this shirt I bought years ago at Tristan America that I cannot let go of. Since starting to sew I’ve realized that it doesn’t actually fit–the darts end at the wrong place–not that non-sewers ever notice, but you know how it is: I notice, and it drives me nuts. But I love it; it has so many fantastic design elements that I hold on to it for inspiration, if nothing else.

The sleeves! Pleated at the cap, smocked through the bicep. I would love to find a sewing pattern that actually had something like this, but alas, no.

And the fabric mixing!

The front and upper sleeves are a normal shirting fabric.

The back and undersleeves are jersey.

As a whole, the bodice of the shirt has almost no ease, but because of the jersey, it fits perfectly and is incredibly comfortable to wear.

As it happens, I had leftover bamboo jersey and a cotton voile in almost the exact same shade of light grey. Fate. Right? So:

Got rid of the ease please in the back, altered the sleeve to pleat the cap and add more volume, used the flounce this time, sized the whole thing down to slight negative ease, and made the back out of jersey. My scrap wasn’t quite wide enough at the top so there’s a bit of fabric piecing near the shoulders. Good enough for government work, I say.

Some things become apparent with try #2:

1. The sleeve has a lot more ease in the front of the armscye than the back. This wasn’t a huge deal with the first version, but with the second version, where the pleat needs to be centred on the shoulder, it became much more visible.
2. The waist is a smidge high. On the loose version you can’t really tell, because the waist is lost anyway in approximately an acre of fabric. But when I made it fitted, I could see that the waist was about 1″ higher than my waist, which is already pretty high. Be warned and check for that before cutting.

The misplaced waist is what’s behind the pull lines on this version. It does up quite easily across the bust but it pulls against that spot on the sides. You can see how they continue on to the back. And the upper “pull lines” are a result of me not shortening the top of the armscye quite enough. Sigh.

I’m getting a lot of wear out of this one. I needed something to wear with all of the brightly coloured skirts I’ve made up recently.

Version 3:

Coral cotton voile. I was going to do the ruffles instead of the flounce, except that the ruffles are not hemmed (and are cut on the bias to reduce fraying). I know bias cut is supposed to make sure things don’t fray but this cotton is prone to disintegration and I didn’t trust it to hold. So I did the flounce again. Regular short sleeves.  Put the ease pleat back in but took a lot of volume out of the sides. And lowered the waist by about 1″.

I might fuss a bit with the front darts if I make this up again. And you can see there’s still a lot of room in the waist, despite sizing down and taking a lot out of the sides.

I don’t know how or why but these buttons were a perfect colour match. How often does that happen?

The only thing I’m not sure I like is the sleeves. If it bugs me I’ll come back and nip them in a bit to lie closer to the shoulder, but I’ll try wearing them this way first. After all, I want to be able to move my arms.