All about the selvedge: B6100

I was so wrong. I have all kind of summer projects I haven’t posted yet. Dear lord.

On the other hand, we now get to see green growing things here on the blog for a little longer, and there isn’t too much of that left in real life at the moment.  Sigh.

Anyway: This is a project that started as a pile of Mariner Cloth, the neon pink colourway. The colour is so fun, and the texture is very cool, and I thought this would make a really great casual shirt.

I was determined to use the selvedge in place of hemming:

Because it is so pretty with all the loopy bits. And it did eventually work out, but first I needed to find a shirt pattern that had a nice straight hem, would work with wovens, and was pretty casual.

I could only get two out of three: I went with Butterick 6100.  It’s meant to be fairly fancy, but it’s also meant to use the selvedge edge of lace fabric, so it did have a good straight hem.

I made a few key changes to the pattern:

1. I wanted it less boxy than it would need to be as a straight pull-over with only a keyhole closure, so I added an invisible side zipper under the left arm.
2. The sleeves from the pattern were incredibly constricting and narrow and very puffy (it doesn’t show in the pattern photos but mine looked like Anne of Green Gables) so I subbed in an altered Scout Tee sleeve instead.

This is a custom cup size pattern, but the D wasn’t quite big enough, so there is a small FBA in addition.

And without being too baggy at the hip, either.  There’s a facing and a button-and-loop closure, both of which worked out well:

The facing is from a cotton voile scrap, with the raw edge serged.

I got lots of wear out of it in the summer. It’s a very lightweight fabric, perfect for steamy days, and turned out very comfortably. Of course now I just need to pine for summer so I can wear it again. Sigh.

It is pretty boxy, but that’s what I wanted, so hurray! And the edge hits right on the high hip, which makes them perfect for high-waisted pants or shorts.

Sizing Note

In Butterick, I should be wearing a size 16/20 for tops according to the body measurement chart. This is a size 10, custom cup size D, with a small FBA, and a slightly raised hemline so it would hit me at the high hip.