Silk Holidaze

Things have turned crazyface around here! Alongside the ramp up to the holidays, the business side of life suddenly woke back up and I'm a little (happily) swamped. So, I'm just going to dive right in. On my last Mood Sewing Network post, I talked about the fabric, now I'll tell you about the pattern...

This is McCalls 7387, which I've sewn up twice, and failed at twice, if you consider the fact that I lost a good foot and a half of fabric on each make a fail. I DO. Cuz I did it twice. Twice, people. That's three feet of fabric. THAT'S LIKE A SHIRT'S WORTH OF FABRIC.

I lost said footage from the hemline. That damn hemline is supposed to be far more dramatic, but each time it came out looking like a Beta Fish tail. Which actually sounds much cooler than it looked. Don't let the description fool you. After a time-out to mull over the fact that I had repeated my error, I lopped it off. (It originally hit just below my calves, the side seam hitting right about where it is now.)

I omitted the front fly facings after reading several pattern reviews about how wonky those directions were. Maybe I had been influenced by the general opinion, but after one glance at the fly instructions, I decided to bail on it. Instead, I cut an extra 5/8ths, using the selvage as the edge of the shirt. I then interfaced & folded it under once to the back, and once to the front, accordion style, to create a placket. The selvage is the front edge of the shirt. (There's also plenty of triple-stitched fuchsia rayon topstitching, but did I get a shot of that? I did not. Here, squint at this next shot, mebbe you can spy it...)

As for those sleeves. HEY. Can someone tell me why a dropped sleeve would have so much ease? You don't need the extra movement, since the seam isn't on your shoulder, right? Also: why do we press the seam towards the sleeves on a woman's shirt, but towards the bodice on a man's? I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS. 

After inserting the sleeves, I pressed the seams this way and that, trying to figure out which draped best (man's way did), but still, they hung a bit...poofily. That extra ease at the "cap" on my bicep just wouldn't lie flat. I hacked the sleeves off, losing about 5/8ths from the armsyce, and added the fold over band option instead. Those little interfaced suckers stick out like I'm a silk crepe de chine'd line backer. Football and silk. I'm down.

They really do wing out! I love them. Finally, I went haywire on the neckline (which does indeed hang straight) and encased it in bias, rather than adding the collar. I didn't see the need for buttons on this go, it feels more artsy this way. 

Oh yeah! One last thing, I did a center back pleat, rather than the diagonal, swooshy, très artsy pleat in the pattern. Because there's only so much art I can take.

Well y'all, hopefully some of this sew-speak makes sense to you. I'm mainly sharing the details in case you want the same outcome! Although I love my new topper, I'm still looking for that perfect, open shirt-dress pattern, with no waist seam. Got any suggestions?

this silk crepe de chine topper was made with my fabric "allowance" as part of the mood sewing network.