Sewing Workshop Now Shirt - A Classic with a Twist

Yes I've been sewing -- a lot. I haven't kept up the blog, having posted a few things here and there on Stitchers Guild. Today's post is about my latest Sewing Workshop garment - A Now Shirt sewn in natural camel hair. This is a suit weight camel hair with the classic brushed surface and a herringbone weave on the wrong side. Even though this is not a coating weight, it requires some careful trimming of the bulky layers at the collar to achieve a nice flat look.



As far as sticking with the instructions, I made french seams on the shoulders and sleeve armholes but because of the bulk, I serge edged the side and sleeve seams and the hems. I also turned back the doubled front placket and stitched at the hem, turned it back on itself, trimmed and tucked the hem edge underneath prior to topstitching the front plackets and hems.



This jacket is very soft and cozy and works well with some camel/gray coordinates I've had for years. It's very important to trim and grade that collar seam and press for a nice, topstitched result. The topstitching then covers the trimmed edges. Pinch them back and hold the front together at the collar edge to get the best look.


Here are photos of the jacket with some RTW coordinates and a detail of the fabric colors and textures.

It's just a pattern - You can change it

Many of us sewing fashionistas take basic patterns we love and add little details and changes. As I posted about the Tuscan Shirt - Loes Hinse does this all the time to her patterns and she calls it "tweaking". Louise Cutting takes her patterns and changes them, adding a different collar, a pleat and so on. If you ever have a chance to attend Louise's classes, she does some great ones showing how to change and add details to her patterns.

I posted photos of this Simply Vera shell worn with the LH "tweaked" Tuscan Shirt cardigan. Here's what it looks like alone. When I saw it I had already sewed the Cutting Line Design Pure and Simple Cardigan. I bought this because the price was right and it had so many possibilities, including a snoop shopped technique for a neat double flounce. So here it is and here's a link to my Flickr Set where you can see the details of how the flounce is inserted cleanly into the front of the blouse.

You can also take details of patterns from Burda WOF and use them. This top/blouse in the August Burda WOF magazine is similar to the shape and sizing of Louise's newest blouse in her Fun with Fabrics pattern. How do I know? I traced both patterns and compared. If you wanted to, you could add a seam to the center front of it and insert the interesting flounces.


Blouse #117 August Burda WOF

Loes Hinse in black and white with pearls

Here's the Loes Hinse cardigan and Tango skirt. I styled it with three faux pearl buttons rimmed with gold and black and a white cotton/lycra shell with a double, asymmetric ruffle down the front that peaks out from the open cardigan. The ruffles are just roll edge serged. The shell is from the Simply Vera Kohls line, but the ruffle could easily be applied to the shell in the CLD Pure and Simple pattern with almost exact lines. Black suit, white blouse and pearls is a look I've seen Chanel do over and over. It's a classic and I like how it works with these Loes Hinse pieces.