I was given Nani Iro's sewing pattern book for Christmas and have been itching to make one of her beautiful patterns. The Work Shirt quickly became top of the list- I've wanted to sew myself some shirts for a long time and never have- and I instantly loved this oversized fit and semi placket situation with gathers.
Fabric
But... this version isn't actually for myself! It was my mum's birthday in March and I was trying to decide what to make her, I knew it would be a top but didn't want to just make a repeat of what I gave her for Christmas- Wikston shift. I decided on this more exciting pattern and ordered 1.5m of linen from Merchant and Mills in "Alta Mare".
I was playing fabric chicken a little bit, as the pattern actually calls for 2.4m! That would have been beyond my budget though even for M&M's cheapest linen so I decided to go for 1.5m and see if I could fit it in, if not I'd have to make something else. I would have been able to squeeze it in to 2m with no modifications, but my 1.5m meant that I had to cut up the sleeves and create an extra seam. However, the sleeves are quite long anyway (on me at least) so next time I could get away with just making them shorter.
The fabric was a nice colour online, but when it arrived I was pleasantly surprised- it was a much deeper teal than I expected and a much more beautiful shade than I thought. It also goes beautifully with this pink shade of their Jacquard quilted cotton (Dauphine) which David gave me for my birthday.
Pattern
The shirt only comes in S, M L. I traced a S which handily will fit both me and my mum even though we are different sizes as the shirt is oversized and boxy anyway. The pattern does not have seam allowances added, and despite knowing this I completely forgot when it came to tracing. I'll just have to add them each time I cut out the fabric, which definitely adds quite a bit of time.
The Work Shirt is split over two big sheets (there are five in total)- so you can get idea of how many pattern pieces are overplayed on top of each other. The layout is quite intense so I identified my pattern pieces and highlighted them all to make sure I traced the right lines. This takes a bit of getting used to, the annotations could be clearer. Particularly the arrows that identify pattern pieces which are very thin curved lines rather than arrows. I mistakenly copied these as notches in some places where "gathers" had been annotated because it didn't look like an arrow!
The pattern took up two of my big sheets of tracing paper.
Process
Placket interfacing:
My first issue with this pattern was confusion about which side the interfacing should be attached to on the plackets. I followed the drawing of the fabric layout with the pattern pieces but it turns out this is incorrect (or insufficiently illustrated).
This fabric layout below shows the pattern pieces on the fabric which is right sides up, and shows that the top and bottom plackets are also both interfaced. What it doesn't say is which side of them needs to be interfaced. The fact that the interfacing is lying on top of the fabric meant that I assumed the right side of the interfacing (non sticky side) is face up, and it is lying on the fabric sticky side down as if it could be bonded.
I actually did cut out the interfacing the right way to begin with but then referred to the diagram from the fabric layout and flipped their shape by cutting out the square in one corner and adding it onto the other.
I didn't realise I was doing something wrong until I came to constructing the placket. You can see from the instructions below that what I have done is opposite what should be.
I re-cut my interfacing and my plackets, the original pieces have gone into my scrap bag for use later.
This could have been so easily avoided with a bit more information on the interfacing step and which side of the fabric to fuse it to. Obviously it is fused to the wrong side, but if you're showing it on the layout plan on top of the fabric pieces you need to state which side up the interfacing is. They were showing it sticky side up, when I assumed it would be sticky side down and fused to the pattern piece underneath it.
I altered my pattern piece to remind myself next time. I need to put it RS up on the sticky side of the interfacing:
Tab:
I had a bit of difficulty sewing my first button hole- on the tab. The tab was so thick and small that my zip foot could not get a proper grip. I sewed it twice and unpicked becuase it was so messy.
In the end, I found a way by doing the two long edges of the button hole first and then finishing with the two short edges. I usually sew my button hole clockwise from the top- 1) short edge, 2) long edge 3) short edge 4) long edge. That short edge at the beginning is often quite bulky and impedes the foot which has to go over it to sew the rest. Not having this bump at the beginning was enough to let my machine get a grip and sew the sides neatly.
Securing the tab with the box topstitching was a little tricky, becuase you want to make sure that the layers are all in the right place and that the gathers below the tab are secured into the fabric sandwich. My gathers didn't quite make it all the way so I hand sewed them to the fabric closed after.
Collar & Gathers
The pattern is quite scant on extra tips for helping construction. Before I sewed the two collar pieces together, I ironed under the SA of one of the long edges on just one collar piece to make closing the collar when its attached to the neckline easier.
At first I gathered between the notches, but this didn't seem to make the bodice neck small enough to fit the collar. So I re-sewed my gathers to go around the whole neckline from front to shoulder seam and all the way around the back too. It wasn't until I tried on the shirt after sewing sleeves and side seams that I then realised having this amount of gathers as far back as the shoulder seam created problem folds. This shape was uncomfortable too as the shoulder seams were sitting really far back on me and the gathers were going down my arms.
Unfortunately as the gather threads were cut when I sewed the collar I couldn't just pull them to re-distribute the gathers. After unpicking my collar I took all the gathers out entirely, ironed the area and re-sewed them. I actually did this twice because I didn't get it quite right. The raw edge gets so frayed it gets a bit nerve-wracking re-doing gathers!
I redid the gathers so that I had most of the gathers close to the placket/centre front, keeping the half of the neckline closest to the shoulder seam clear of gathers. I also made sure that I was bringing the shoulder seams forward slightly, which meant that I gathered the back a bit less. This fit much better, with the shoulder seam where it should be and the gathers causing less dramatic giant folds around my armpits. I tried to refer to the model photos to check how it looks but it’s hard to tell; she’s sitting down so her arms are in a different position, and the other dresses based off the Work Shirt aren’t all that helpful either. Perhaps because they are all made in lighter fabric- her very light linen- that it's less noticeable.
Buttons
The pattern calls for quite small buttons- 1.3cm or 1/2 inch. I found some in my local fabric shop that I thought would go really nicely. The only nice buttons they have really are shell ones, and they had these in quite a few colours including pink or this orange. I love the pink contrast with this but thought my mum might prefer the orange, which also looks amazing against this teal.
I didn't follow the pattern placement for buttons. Instead I used this great youtube tutorial to find the placement of my top button and button hole, and just found the mid-point of the placket for the placket button and hole. I sewed my button holes at 1.5 cm or slightly longer, for 1.3cm wide buttons.
The only other issue I had was with the cuffs. They were a bit too small for the sleeve opening, and then when folding them back on themselves onto the sleeve again they were much too loose. I took in the seam allowance to make them smaller which helped, but this was annoying and shouldn't really be an issue.
For the most part the instructions are clear, but the pattern misses out a few steps you would need as a beginner sewists so I would say it's only really suitable for people with a bit of sewing experience under their belt. For e.g when to press or grade seams, stay stitching necklines, pre-pressing the SA of one collar piece over...
Despite these little issues, the shirt worked out well without any adjustments! I'm pleased with the fit on myself and it fits my mum too. I was going to see her at the end of March to celebrate our birthdays but of course sadly that isn't happening anymore, so I sent her the shirt instead.
I can't wait to make my own Work Shirt, I've ordered some black double gauze and have made myself two little pink buttons from polymer clay to go with it.
I also made my mum matching polymer clay earrings, I love making these co-ordinated sets that match fabric. This teal go so well with the burnt orange in the buttons, which also happens to be the same colour as the double gauze I made my latest Winslows out of whose scraps worked well as soft and pretty cushioning (Penny Lane from Merchant & Mills).
Pattern: The Work Shirt, part of Nani Iro's Sewing Studio pattern book.
Fabric: Alta Mare 185 linen M&M
Comments