Alex Shirt Take Two
It was either going to be a floaty tea dress style, or the Alex Shirt from Sew Over It’s My Capsule Wardrobe City Break e-book. As you can see, the Alex shirt won. I am in desperate need of more things I can wear on an everyday basis and this shirt definitely ticks that box.
Having made this shirt once already I knew I liked it and that it would be a quick make (not taking into account hand stitching the collar).
The fabric is gorgeous to work with and incredibly comfortable to wear, although it does crease quite easily. Black fabric is notoriously difficult to photograph as well, I had planned to use photographs from a trip to the beautiful Mottisfont grounds with my sister but unfortunately they just didn’t come out great.
Again I cut a size 16 at the bust and graded out to a 20 at the hips having taken out about 8cm from the back using this sway back adjustment tutorial. It’s still lovely and floaty but sits better on my back now.
I decided to add the patch pockets to both sides of the front shirt for an extra detail and I also used french seams entirely, even on the armhole seams. It looks great on the inside, but due to there being no obvious right or wrong side with this fabric I stitched the arms up the wrong way around. You have to sew the sleeve tabs onto the wrong side of the sleeve pieces whilst they are still flat, and then construct the rest of the sleeve. Both the sleeves and armholes (remember I had done french seams here) were finished before I’d realised my mistake, so I’m leaving them like that now and have the button on the inside of the sleeve instead!! Oh well!
As you can see I have styled it here with my hand made bandana that I’m wearing to help raise money for vital research with The Brain Tumour Charity. Today is their #WearItOut campaign on Instagram, which you can read more about it on Lucy’s blog. I used one of the fat quarters that came in the February Love Is Sweet box.
I have filmed my sewing process with the Alex shirt which will be up on the vlog on Sunday, so make sure you check it out then. Once it’s ready I will link to it below too.
Have you got any sewing plans for the weekend? Comment below and let me know.