Completed: Plantain T-shirt from Deer and Doe

So, I've been sewing again :-)

As a part of my spring SWAP I wanted to sew a color blocked top to go into the work closet. I have read a lot of great reviews of the free pattern from Deer and Doe: Plantain Tee. I have to say I was a little suspicious of the A-line shape, because it is REALLY a-line. I have a fairly narrow waist and sometimes a-line tops look a little too shapeless on me. (I LOVE a-line dresses though).

I did my usual FBA, of course, and then I gathered scraps of fabric I had laying around and started constructing the tee. I did plan to add those elbow patches, because I love elbow patches, but with the color blocking I thought the top became busy enough without them, so they were left out in the end.

This is the finished top. If I would sew it again I would for sure make it less flared, but I still really like the result. In particular the color combo!

Completed: Sewaholic Granville Shirt, + Pattern Review

I was thrilled when Sewaholic released the new shirt pattern, with all the neat details you'd find in RTW. I have wanted to sew myself a perfect shirt for a while but didn't want to invent my own pattern. The shirt was quickly out on all sewing blogs too with nothing but amazing reviews.

The only alteration I made on forehand to the pattern was my usual FBA. Other than that I cut a straight 8. Other alterations that I did during the process in the pattern review below.

Finished shirt!!

and back!

And here is my pattern review: 

I'll start with the things I liked: All in all a very well drafted pattern with a lot of attention to details. I love the clever collar stand construction and the beautiful sleeve plackets. I also love the back princess seems and the self lined yoke - it all made for a very professional finish. Another good thing (personal preference) were the slim fit sleeves, which makes the shirt look very tailored in my opinion.

Just look at those collar points!!!! SHARP.

I added a placket button to keep the fabric in place, since I had to overlap quite a bit.

There were, however, things I didn't like as much with the pattern too. The suuuuuper long sleeves, for example. Many blogs mention it, but they are seriously long. Chimp long. I need to shorten them at least one inch next time, maybe more.

Also the cuffs where enormous. The sleeves are not eased or tucked into the cuff, but the cuff matches the circumference of the sleeve exactly. This means the cuffs fall over my hands completely if I don't overlap A LOT. Next time: make the cuffs at least 1,5 inch narrower and ease/tuck in the sleeves instead.

The pattern, like all Sewaholic patterns, are made for pear shaped bodies. I do have a narrow waist and big hips, but apparently I wear my extra load somewhere else than at the sides because the original shaping gave me wings! It actually looked kind of ridiculous so I had to unpick the flat felled seams and reshape it. I graded from size 8 down to a size 0 at the hemline and it still has plenty of shape and room. Well, I guess we are all different ;-)

Showing the long sleeves and the side wings :)

After grading to size 0 at the hemline.
By the way - look at that smooth hemming job! I am seriously proud!

Another thing that threw me off was that I had to cut back the collar 3cm (more than 1 inch) to get it to fit! Which means that I must have fucked up somewhere (or else it should have been mentioned in all those blog posts, right?!?). I double, and triple, checked everything but could not find where it had gone wrong... Thankfully the shorter collar would still fit around my neck (better actually!) and no weird wrinkles appeared either. I am still puzzled.

All in all, this is a lovely pattern. With my new learnings, this will be great next time. I know this pattern will become a staple and I already want to make my next Granville! Thank you Sewaholic  the best pattern yet!