When I presented my ‘best nine’ it could be said that I cheated… because I had already started one of them. In my defence though it was only a wearable muslin that I had started… does that still count?
Behold! The mighty Melilot Shirt! This was one of my Christmas pressie patterns, so of course I started a practice run during the Christmas holidays.
Because I have huge faith in Deer and Doe patterns I decided to go all in and make a wearable muslin with all the bells and whistles. Well nearly all of them. It was really just the body fit I was interested in so I made the short sleeved version, with the grandfather collar.
I used a lovely cotton I had in my stash which has little bobbly bits all over it, I’m sure that kind of fabric has a name but I’m sticking with bobbly fabric!
I made up a 38 which gave a good few inches of ease on my 34″ bust. The fit is lovely and generous, but does bunch a bit over my sway back… I don’t mind this though, I could do an adjustment if I needed to but because it’s a loose top anyway it’s just not needed.
Construction was really easy! And as usual with Deer and Doe, the instructions are brilliant! The trickiest part was the hem. Because it has the dramatic curve at the sides, it was a right royal pain in the arse! Did I cut a corner and use bias binding? You bet your ass I did!!
The instructions ask for French seams throughout too, which I left out on the side seams as I was checking fit and may have needed to rip back or restitch. I just overlocked the side seams instead so still nice and neat. But it did mean doing the hem in one giant strip rather than each piece separately before then doing the side seams… not fun.
Ooh what’s that on the horizon? Ha ha.
I do love these little sleeve cuffs. I have done something similar on another pattern, but I love that these look, for want of a better word… perky.
I also love the simplicity of the collar. Again very easy to actually put together. Sadly because my buttons were a mite big they sadly didn’t fit on the collar itself, so the top button is just below. It still means I can wear it fastened all the way up…
… if I wanted to.
This is also happily the kind of shirt that looks good tucked in too… so work suitable! I should maybe explain that I have very loose slouchy work trousers and just prefer to tuck tops into them… so I don’t look like I’m wearing a tent!
And if you’ve been wondering what that shadow is on the left there…
It’s me standing just to the right of my ironing board… or do I in fact have a floating iron?! You decide!!
Making With Needles 