OAL2016: Eyelet Collar Parisian Top

Since I finished my sweater for the Outfit Along with 2 weeks to spare, I decided to go ahead with a project I had planned a while ago that would work perfectly to combine the cardigan and skirt: a white shirt. I know what you're thinking: A white t-shirt. How boring. But this is not a plain white tee :) I have the same type of thoughts with making something as boring as a plain white shirt, yet white shirts are absolutely the workhorse of my wardrobe and are one of the only things I actually wear out. I wear mostly separates day to day, but I'm not a fan of pattern on pattern and some of my skirts are odd colors that are very hard to match in a solid fabric. White shirts are the answer for me. They go with everything! But it still bores me to tears just thinking about making a completely plain white shirt (you know - scoop neck with short sleeves). So I had the thought months ago to make one with an eyelet collar. I actually had ordered an eyelet white jersey material from Fabric.com last year, but they ran out so they couldn't fulfill my order. At that time I wanted to make a Sorrel top with an eyelet collar. When that plan was dashed (the Sorrel has to use a knit and I couldn't find any more eyelet jersey), I shelved the idea hoping to find the right fabric to no avail. Fast forward to this year and I had the idea to use the Parisian Top pattern and make the collar in woven eyelet. Done! It just had to be.

When I first made this pattern years ago (here and here - wow, I can't believe it's been that long), I thought that all the fabrics you used had to be a knit (body and collar). I thought it might work though, so after researching the versions other bloggers have made I knew it would work with a woven collar and a knit body. Huzzah! I had a 2 yard cut of white Robert Kaufman Laguna Jersey in my stash that I could use for the body, but finding an eyelet I liked for the collar was a bigger challenge than I anticipated. All I had in my stash (inherited from others' stashes) as well as most of what I could find for sale was eyelet border print, which wouldn't work with the curved shape of my collar, and the few all over eyelets I found were crazy expensive (Some were as much as $45 a yard!). I only needed about a fat quarter worth of fabric! Ugh. I found one at Joann's that I was getting ready to buy, but online they now have a minimum of 3 yards to order (what's with that?) and I haven't had the justification to drive 1 hour to get to the nearest store. Happily (actually, it's sadly) I swung int o my local Hancock Fabric's going out of business sale and they had one that was an all over floral embroidered eyelet. I had to buy a minimum of 2 yards, but since it was 80% off, it was cheaper than just the 1/2 yard would've been at Joann's. Also I technically got 1/2 yard free because there was a big snag in the middle of the yardage and the lady cutting it for me just threw that in on top of my 2.5 yards I asked for. I was easily able to cut my collar around the snag, making this collar technically free :) So now I have plenty of eyelet and I still had enough for this project, lol. Long story, sorry.

The Parisian Top was actually the first knit project I ever made. What attracted me to it then are still the things I love about it now - what's not to love about a t-shirt with a peter pan collar and puffed sleeves?! I did make some fit changes to this shirt though just like I did to my Classy Parisian long ago. I like a tighter fit than the pattern suggests for my size so it accentuates my waist, and while I fall in the range of the size Large, I kind of end up with a size Medium from the bust down. To do this I cut the pieces in the size Large, constructed the shoulder seams and sleeves, then laid my Classy Parisian top on top of it to see where to contour the side seams more and sewed from sleeve hem to main hem with a much larger seam allowance. After trying it on, I thought I might like a smidge more ease, so I tried to unpick my side seam - holy cow what a nightmare that was for my eyes! My thread was the exact color of my fabric and I used a lightning bolt stitch so it was near impossible to unpick. I made a small hole in my efforts about mid waist and just said the old fit was fine and resewed the seam (adding knit stay tape to the hole and making sure it was in the seam allowance.

So the shirt is slightly more snug than I would like, but I can live with it. The part that kind of annoys me now is how sheer the laguna jersey is. I understand it's white and white is sheer, but I feel like I am constantly on the hunt for a slightly thicker but still nice and not polyester knit in white. When I find it, Watch Out! Anyway, it's a little sheer, but that's normal in white even in ready to wear, so I'm not that worried about it. I did make another change to the pattern by leaving the hem bands off at the sleeves and body - this is just my personal preference. I love a good twin needle hem and it's so much less fiddly to wear than a hem band. I just lengthened the body to account for the hem band being gone. I made the sleeves shorter anyway, so I just turned them where I liked the length and stitched (the pattern comes with 3/4 length sleeves). I wanted the sleeves to be short so i could wear them under a cardigan easily (which I totally can!).

I love how the sleeves fit me on this shirt though - they ended up not as tight as the body, so they are able to keep their nice little poof at the top. And the length is good for me :) One advantage to the jersey being a bit thin is that the puff on the sleeves easily lays flat under a cardigan - yay!

Now for the real star here: the collar. I can't lie - I did settle for this eyelet fabric, but now that it's all finished I really love it and think it's a better choice than one with more holes. There is a rose pattern embroidered on it in a shinier thread so it stands out from the white background better. I wanted the pattern to match as well as possible, so I cut the collar top in two pieces with added seam allowance at the back instead of on the fold like the pattern calls for. This was I was able to lay the first cut piece on top of the fabric to make sure they matched. I deliberately made is so that the larger rose motif was on the main part of the collar with the eyelets ending up above them and I think it worked pretty well :)

Here's a close up of the collar front and pattern matching - not bad. Not perfect, but not bad. The eyelet fabric was very sheer, so I opted to use fusible interfacing to the eyelet pieces of the collar instead of the bottom to help hide the seam allowances inside. I didn't want the under collar to be bulky with another layer of eyelet, so I used a plain white mystery fabric from my stash (it seemed like a cheap poly cotton) and this worked great. I followed the pattern and trimmed 1/8" off the outer edge of the collar before sewing the top to the bottom to keep the seam line securely under and it worked like a charm! This is the first time I've done it correctly since it's the first time it actually worked, lol. I also really love how neat the binding inside the neck turns out on this pattern. It's undoubtedly the most fiddly neck binding of any of the knit patterns I've used, but very much worth it since everything is encased and smooth when you're finished. I stitched the neckband binding on with a zig zag stitch. The final shot is of the seam at the back of the collar - since it worked out so well it deserves a photo :)

Let's look at that collar one more time :) I really love that this idea worked out and the fact that it's white on white makes it seem like a shirt you could buy somewhere (hopefully that makes sense). I guess I mean that it feels like a good design choice. With this collar and the puffed sleeves I think Anne Shirley herself would be envious :)

And there you have it - my final piece for the Outfit Along that really makes the whole outfit come together and I can't imagine this project without it. I adore this shirt, and I might be tempted to do the eyelet collar again in other colors - how cute would yellow or teal be?!

I've said it for all of my Outfit Along pieces, but this will get so much wear with other things in my closet! I'm excited to have each separate item to wear together or apart. While I do love my crazy print dresses, there's something to be said about easy to wear basic items that you know will be worn much more often, which all of these items are :) So I'm really happy that I was able to complete my goal of the Outfit Along and end up with such practical items in the process!

Did you join in the Outfit Along? I'd love to see your projects!

Shirt Summary:
Fabric: 1.25 yards Laguna Jersey in White - $7.50, 0.5 yards of embroidered cotton eyelet - Free, 0.25 yards white broadcloth (?) - Free (stash)
Pattern: Parisian Top by Go To Patterns
Notions: Interfacing - $0.50, knit stay tape - $0.25, thread - $0.50
Time: 4 hours
Total Cost: $8.75

The Classier Parisian (Alterations For The Win!)

Well, it looks like all I needed to get my rear in gear with altering my Almost Classy Parisian top was to blog about it, lol. I wrote the post on Friday, scheduled it to go up on Sunday, then took it apart and fixed it Saturday after work. This was technically fixed by the time anyone reading my blog saw it. If only I hadn't posted those highly unflattering photos, lol.

To see the top before alterations, click here. I went into this alteration just knowing it was too big. I put the top on, pinned up the excess length, then pinned in the sides to follow my curves. I unpicked the bottom band, then sewed up on side seam to my new adjustments, and put it on to discover it wasn't just the body that looked sloppy - the arms did too. I ended up taking in the entire body of the shirt by 5/8" (sleeves, body, sleeve bands and hip band), making this top now a size Medium as the pattern is drafted. And it's still not tight tight, just "fitted". Now that the rest of the shirt fits well, I can see that the upper chest could come in to remove those wrinkles at my underarms and the collar is a smidge wide, so next time I make this it will be a medium all over. Me? A Medium? This is the first time in several years ...

See the difference in the sleeve? I still see that blasted crease in the fabric even though I steamed the heck out of it, lol. Oh well, maybe when I actually wash the shirt. No more bagging around the tummy though!

And there's still bra-back-fat, but you can't have everything in life. Not a wrinkle fest in the back! Huzzah! I ended up shortening the top by a full 2 inches all the way around and it's still a fine length. And I have a long torso! So strange. 

These are the pieces I cut off. It doesn't look like much, but man what a difference, huh? This even helped with the issue I had of the fabric clinging to the edge of my bra. Who woulda thunk!

Ta Da! A fitted shirt that no longer looks dumpy. This is much closer to how Julia Bobbin fitted this top, which is the blog post that lead me to purchase the pattern in the first place. I have two things that I really want to reiterate with this post though. 1) If something doesn't fit, it's not that big a deal to take it apart and try again. Seriously, I pulled apart the entire shirt except the collar and it only took about an hour to get it wearable. And 2) Fitted clothes are more flattering. It took me a long time to accept this, but no matter what your size, you will look slimmer if your clothes hug your body a bit. Covering yourself in too long/too loose clothes just makes you look bigger! So hug a few curves and show the body you have to its best advantage. 

I really think being more "fitted" like this looks better with this style of neckline and collar, don't you?

The Almost Classy Parisian

This project was one that I had high hopes for, but in the end I'm going to have to do some tweaks to make it more like-able. This was the color combo I was happiest about in my stash fabric when I started making t-shirts a few weeks ago, but I wanted to make it in another fabric first to test the fit. When my first Funky Parisian worked out fine, I decided to jump right into my "official" project - The Almost Classy Parisian.

This is the Parisian Top pattern by Go To Patterns, and this is the 5th t-shirt I made in 8 days, lol. I used this awesome raspberry/fuchsia interlock knit that I scored at a thrift store for $1.00. It's a lovely fabric - deliciously soft and comfy. It does have some slight pilling from it being old and changing hands who knows how many times before it came to me - nothing a clothing shaver won't fix though :) The black fabric was actually a pillowcase from a jersey sheet set I bought in the clearance section at Target (like $6.00  for an XL Twin set - awesome!). The jersey is definitely not great (it has the worst recovery ever), but I only needed the little bit of it for the collar, so I figured it would be ok. It did stretch out, so I had to cut some off to match the interfaced piece, but it worked out ok in the end.

Clearly I need to press that sleeve better, lol.

The only thing about this shirt that makes me not love it as much as I thought I would is the fit. This fabric is much drapier than the fabric from my first version, making it cling to the edges of my bra a bit more than I would like as well as causing it to pool around my tummy and just generally looking too big in that area. 

I also think it may be too long - see the pooling of fabric at my lower back? To be honest, I didn't really even want to take pictures of it like this. I wore it to work the day after I made it and it was really just too big all around. Sadly, it wasn't just me who noticed - several of my coworkers (even my dad!) commented that it seemed a bit big. I won't wear it again until I take the bottom band off, give the tummy more shape and cut off the excess length, then reattach the band. It's really not much work, but I just haven't been in the mood. In the end I decided to take pictures anyway just to remind myself for future versions. I will certainly post about this again when I make my adjustments so you can see the difference :) I know once I tweak it, I will wear the heck out of this shirt.

I am particularly proud of the inside of my collar this time around. Last time I had no idea what I was doing and I stretched the neckband unevenly, creating all sorts of problems when it came to finishing it off. Also it drives me crazy to see the different colored neckband in my first version as I wear it - it's a little thing but it makes a big difference to me. So this time around, I made a few changes:

1. Cut the neckband piece in the same fabric as the collar
2. Cut the neckband wider (I doubled the width, but that was a bit much). 
3. Mark the center and try to gauge the where the shoulder seams should hit, and try to pin those places first.

Look ad the difference all these little things made in my neckband! I admit that I did have to cut off some of that extra width I added to the neckband, but it was really nice to have too much rather than too little when it came time to fold the band under and finish it off. The pattern doesn't give any kind of markings on the neckband piece, which I now know contributed to my problems with not stretching my first one evenly. Now that I've attached several other neckbands and used other patterns, I know it makes a world of difference if you know where the neckband should hit the center front and shoulder seams - I highly recommend marking these yourself if you make this top. I also decided to get fancy with my thread when it came time to top stitch the band in place. I used black thread on top and fuchsia thread in the bobbin, helping the stitches to disappear under the collar. I'm really glad I remembered to do this (I just barely thought of it before I used black all the way) because I know that they black thread would have stood out at the notch in the collar at the center front. Who wants a black zig zag line front and center on their shirt? Anyway, I'm ridiculously proud of my neckband :)

So, there's my shirt that I'm a little "eh" over. At least I know I can make little changes to fix the things I don't love, so that's nice. Now if I can just buckle down and fix it so I can wear this baby!

Summary:

Fabric: 2 yards of Fuchsia Interlock Knit from Thrift Store, $1.00; Black Jersey Pillow Case, approx $0.50

Pattern:  Parisian Top by Go To Patterns, $7.50

Hours: About 4

P.S. This is the same fabric I used for the elbow patches on my Cherry, Cherry Plantain - I cut this shirt out at the same time as that shirt, then used the scraps from this to cut the patches. I wanted to make sure I would have enough for both projects, which turned out to be a non-issue as I still have a decent chunk left. Better safe than sorry! Who knows what it will be next :)

My First Parisian - Funky 70s Style

Friends, it seems I have accidentally turned my sewing room into a 1 woman t-shirt factory this week. I've had several knit top patterns I wanted to sew up, but after an unsuccessful attempt back in April, my dreams of cute t-shirts went by the wayside. Until now :) I had the good fortune of having the Labor Day holiday off work and the house to myself all day, and I decided it was the perfect opportunity to finally hash this out. Now I seem to have tapped into my new addiction, lol. It's only fitting that the first top I made last Monday was the pattern I failed at in April.

This is my first Parisian Top by Go To Patterns. I snagged the pattern in the Just Add Jeans Pattern Anthology collection - to be honest this shirt was the reason I clicked "checkout". It has a peter pan collar and 3/4 length puffed sleeves - it's so me! I had to have a million of them. I began by cutting the XL size (according to my measurements) in this crazy 1970s flower print knit I got at a thrift store for something like 50¢ a long time ago. I chose this fabric because A) it was cheap and in my stash B) I wasn't so in love with it that I would be upset if it didn't work out and C) I had a remnant of blue (also from a thrift store) that matched it perfect for the collar. So even though this isn't my usual chosen color palette, I decided to go for it on the assumption of a possibly wearable muslin. To be honest though, I actually really like the color combo now that it's done, lol. Judging by the fabric's design and condition, I think I can safely say the flower print is from the 1970s.

Back in April when I tried the pattern out, I thought my problem was that my knit was too crappy (I was using a set of jersey sheets I picked up at Target in their clearance section and they had like zero recovery). It turns out though that while it may have been bad material for the pattern, I also cut too big of a size. When I made the body of the shirt in the XL size this time around, I had the same problem - it was huge! Because it was huge, it was also very unflattering. I started by pinching in the sides and pinning in the excess in the mirror, but it was no joke 1.5 to 2" on each side that I pinched out by (both on the body and the sleeves). Instead of just sewing in and trying it on over and over again to get it to fit, I decided to lay the size Large pattern piece on top to see what the difference would be - it was exactly what I needed! Who knew that all that turmoil earlier this year could have been solved by just going down a size. At least it was an easy (albeit time consuming) change to make. I just recut the pieces in the new size (I had to fudge the collar curve a bit, but it worked out ok). I had ZERO fit problems after this change :) So anyone else who decides to make this pattern - it seems to go close to ready to wear women's sizing - I typically wear a size Large there too.

I had to do a little quick thinking when it came to the collar too. I forgot I needed to interface one collar piece and all I had on hand was for wovens, but I did have a roll of SewKeysE Knit Stay Tape. I decided to just piece the tape and use it as interfacing:

It looked pretty interesting inside the collar, but it seems to have done the job :) I love this stay tape and I use it for everything. I bought it after watching the Craftsy Zipper Class. I bought mine from Sunni's Shop, A Fashionable Stitch, but she doesn't have the knit tape in stock right now. I used the 1.25" wide inside the collar and I used 1/2" wide at the shoulders and around the neckline to prevent stretching out over time. The directions tell you you can use clear elastic in the shoulder seams, but ... eh, I didn't feel like pulling that out, lol. It is called Stay Tape, after all. It seems to have done a fine job.

Now, I am showing you the unsightliness that is the inside of my neckband only for posterity's sake - and for me to see how much I improve over time, lol. I had a helluva time with this neck band. The pattern only includes 3/8" seam allowances, which is great for saving fabric, but not so great for a first time neckband sewer. The directions tell you to to sew the sandwich of body, collar pieces, and neckband, then turn the neckband over, tuck the raw edge under and top stitch it down. Seriously? TURN THE RAW EDGE UNDER? ON A KNIT? It was curling anyway which would make it difficult, but it seems I didn't really stretch my neckband evenly, so it also made the remaining fabric almost not wide enough not wide enough to clear the other fabric in parts. I went extremely slowly and was able to stitch it down, but I didn't even bother to try turning the edge under. I figured it's inside the shirt, so only I will see it and I don't mind. It's a knit, it's not like it will unravel. So, it's not the prettiest inside neckband, but it does the job of encasing everything. Next time I make this pattern, I will cut the neckband piece a little wider and also I will cut it out of the same fabric as the collar. When I wear it, the weight of the collar wants to pull the neckband down a bit, revealing the top of the neckband. I think it would be way less noticeable if the fabric matched. I am quite proud of my collar matching perfectly in the center though.

So, there you have it :) My first ever successful foray into sewing with knits. I can already tell you it is a new addiction (*cough*I've made 4 shirts in 1 week*cough*). I don't want to bombard my blog with nothing but t-shirts for the next few days, so I'll try to spread these posts out more to break it up :) But there will be more, oh yes, there will be more! And even though this was intended as a muslin, I have already worn it out in the real world and it held up great. I think I like it!

Summary:
(I've always loved how Cindy at Cation Designs does a round up of materials and cost at the end of her posts, so I'm going to start shamelessly copying her.)

Fabric: 2 yards of 1970s flower mystery knit from the thrift store, 1 yard remnant (as it cut up already) of blue interlock knit from the thrift store
Pattern: Parisian Top by Go To Patterns
Hours: About 4
Total Cost: Maybe $2.00 for fabric and notions, $7.50 for the pattern (but I will totally use this again - actually, I already have, lol)