Creation: Midnight Sun Shirt

In the spirit of Sew For a Change I decided to mend and make do. This led me to cut up one of my me-mades and make myself a shirt.

The long wrap dress was made from a wrap top and was ill-fitting and I felt very hausfrau when I was wearing it. I was never really comfortable in it. The fabric however is a lovely cotton poplin that is wonderful to wear, so there’s no way I would let it go to waste.

I cut off all seams and just used the piece for a new pattern, the Lily shirt (same pattern as dress above, only shortened) from Jenny Hellström’s book Sy! Från hood till skjortklänning. In the book she instructs us not to mess with darts and rather take the clothes in at CB/CF and side seams. But, after my Rule Britannia dress I was on an FBA high, so I tried that out. It’s not a perfect FBA, the vertical darts runs from the bust to the waist, so it was a bit hard. Even if the fit is not spot on, I think my attempt of an FBA made it better than using Jenny’s idea. However, she wants everyone to sew and that you could be a beginner and making her projects and I honestly don’t think FBAs are for beginners, they come at a later stage and shouldn’t hold back enthusiam.

I was a bit short on fabric so I had to cut the collar in halfs and set a seam at the CB. It’s not that noticable. Also, I had no fabric for sleeves, so a sleeveless shirt it is. I used black bias tape for facing the armholes. The belt is a leftover from the fabric’s stint as a wrap dress and I like it with the shirt too so that gets to live on as is. Plus, do you see how well my shirt gos with the matching Midnight Sun Skirt?

This was a rather quick make, I can’t belive how fast it took me to sew this up (the buttons were hand-stitched on during that fatal Olympic hockey final). The instructions tells us where and when to sick-sack/overlock the edges and we are only instructed to do so for the seams that get a lot of strain. That saved me a lot of time, so let’s hope the shirt doesn’t fall apart.

Mind you, this fabric is not black, it is blue, so what do I have? Another look for #SewBlueFebruary! Here’s a closeup of the collar as well.

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