2/7 Chelsea collar shirt

This was one fiddly project!

I decided to push my limits a bit with this one, it is by far the most complex thing I have ever made!

The pattern is a Tilly and the Buttons ‘Mimi’ shirt from the book ‘Love at first stitch’ (French version, I imagine the pattern names are different in English). The material is a very light and floaty cotton of a kind of shell blue-grey and the buttons are called ‘belly-buttons’ (they are concave) and are matte berry red.

It was quite a long project also because there are something like twelve (TWELVE!) different pieces of material to cut out. The good thing is that each step is very well described in the book, so you can have a good idea of the complexity before starting. In fact, a thing I have learnt to do in the last two projects is to sit down with a cup of coffee and read through all the steps before even starting tracing the pattern. It avoids surprises and frustration!

Main things I learnt:

1. Do not start ironing interfacing early in the morning or when your head is elsewhere. The result is a gooey iron and lots of time spent with a chopstick and a swab of paper dipped in white vinegar trying to remove the stuff.

2. I did my first ruffles!! I prefer the French word ‘fronces’ that is basically only used to say ‘froncer les sourcils’ and my face was definitely frowning while I ruffled! Very fiddly, especially because in a bound of self-confidence I decided to skip the basting and sew them on directly.

3. First time inserting sleeves (also ruffled), I’m not a big fan of sleeves, in all the other tops or dress projects I left them out. But this time I decided to face my foe, and the result was quite good! The most complicated part, since the sleeves did not fit in my sewing machine (the hole of the sleeve was too small) was trying to not get other layers of material caught in the middle.

So I kept my challenge at least for the second week, pfiuuu!! Will start straight away on the next one… so stay tuned!

Voilà