Every winter I face the same conundrum. Why don’t I own a gingham cropped shirt? And every winter I have to settle for cardigans and long sleeve shirts. This winter I say NO MORE. No more being warm, no more being sheltered from the rain. I say bring on the goosebumps.
And so, when I saw that this week’s theme for the Sew Weekly was ‘Go West’ I knew what I was going to make. I used a Vogue Basic Design’s Pattern as a starting point, but altered the bottom of the shirt to make ties instead. I also changed the sleeve a little as my shoulders need no shoulder pads. I pleated the excess material and bound it with bias tape, then added some little bows. I tossed up using red buttons but they looked a little dress-up-ey (for once not in a good way) so I stuck with white ones instead.
The instructions with this pattern were not the best, so I winged it (wung?) most of the time. There was no facing for the neck collar piece so there is a raw edge under the collar which is irking me, so I might have to bind it with some of the leftover bias tape. However this may have been because I gave up reading the instructions and went with *instinct* (ahem blindly sewed) but I will choose to blame Vogue anyway.
The fabric, buttons, pattern and interfacing were all from my stash so this shirt was like a gift from the obsessively shopping and fabric hoarding gods. I do thank them and promise to do my very best and buying every piece of decent fabric I come across in my weekly op shop pilgrimages.
I’m hoping I’ve managed to channel a vintage ‘glamour’ Western look instead of, as my boyfriend kindly put it “You look like a farmer checking on her chickens”. I distinctly remember chickens in The Wizard of Oz and that’s kind of Western……right?
It is 15°C today (or 59 in Farenheit for those of you playing along in America) and I am just a wee bit cold. Sadly I think my boot scootin’ days may be limited to the latter parts of the year.
Thanks for reading. Bry xo
