Wholecloth: Liesl and Co.

Monday, February 29, 2016

Gingham Check Gallery Tunic

Oh February, you've been hard on me. Colds and fevers and stomach bugs passed round third grade, handed down to kindergarten, then brought home to me. In fact when I wrote this I had a fever. My second in 2 weeks, the first in 8 years. I didn't realize it until I did a proof read and noticed I had peppered this post with serious curse words. I put myself to bed that very minute.

This toned down (but not well proof read) fever rant brings me to the physical manifestation of my earnest wish for spring: a Gallery Tunic in breezy light weight cotton gingham, worn with jeans so ancient they don't have any stretch, and shoes without socks (but only in the house, of course).

This is my second wearable Gallery Tunic. I like the previous one, but I don't love it. There's something about it that isn't me. I'd like to be the sort of person who wears boots and skirts and interesting prints, but I'm more the sort of person who wears the same t-shirt I had on yesterday, and leaves the house without brushing her hair. Perhaps the aspirational decision making can be blamed on my February funk. All that time to imagine what I'd like to wear, when what I'm actually wearing is borderline unfortunate.

I always intended to make two. A shirt-ish one in the floral, and a longer one in gingham. I even bought both fabrics, but then I thought perhaps I was over committing myself, and my new thing is not over committing myself, so I didn't think I'd make the longer gingham one. I tucked that fabric away for another project.

But, at about the time I was tucking this fabric away for later, Grainline Studio released the Popover add-on to the Archer. One of her inspirational photos was dangerously similar to the gingham tunic I had planned to make. Such clear visual proof that my planned alterations were not a bad idea, was incentive to draft a few new pattern pieces, and figure this little number out. I'm sure Jen did not intend for her pin to inspire me to sew somebody else's pattern, but I'll get to the Popover eventually and we'll all come out even.

I think we've established that this is the Liesl and Co. Gallery Tunic. The very same pattern I sewed last week for the sew along on Liesl's blog. Let's skip right to the alterations. First, and most simply, I lowered the front opening 1 1/2". I lengthened the bottom hem, by an inch or two and straightened out the hem. I also raised side slits about 1" higher. Cut the cuffs as two pieces, added a slit to the arm opening. Created a back yoke. I cut the collar as two pieces by using the Gallery Tunic collar band, and the Archer collar. Added the Archer pockets. And while I was at it, I frenched all the exposed seams.

Fabric: Kokka Fabrics Large Gingham in Beige from Purl Soho. I question whether this fabric should be used for grown-up clothing. Given the many characteristics a fabric can have (fineness of weave, drape, fiber content) and the many I was looking for (color, print, weight, price, shipping time) I'm okay with the tradeoff.

Watch the Oliver + S blog today to find out the sew along winner.

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Button Up Gallery Tunic

Anyone paying attention to the SweetKM social media team (and by team I mean me) will know that I am a panelist for the Liesl + Co. Gallery Tunic Sew-Along over on the Oliver + S blog. The sew along portion started Monday. I couldn't contain my enthusiasm and raced on ahead. You can read my pregame post on the Oliver + S blog to catch yourself up. Go ahead, we'll wait.

You can purchase the digital pattern here. If you're normally annoyed by digital patterns because they are a huge waste of printer paper, this would be a good time to restore your faith in the digital format. The Oliver + S family of patterns make particularly efficient use of paper, using parts of sheets rather than just full sheets (when you print you'll see what I mean). If you're committed to to a professionally printed pattern, you can purchase that here.

Let's start with fabric. I used the Woodland Collection designed by Liesl Gibson. It's printed on Robert Kaufmann Cambridge Lawn, so I already knew what the fabric would be like before I bought it. The print I chose is In The Trees Charcoal. I would call the background navy not charcoal, not a deal breaker just a heads up. I had planned to use this Robert Kaufman Manchester in Mist (shown above) as the accent on the inside. In the end I didn't because it was the tiniest bit heavier than the lawn and I didn't want it to interrupt the flow of the main fabric. But I'm excited about the Manchester fabric, it would be a great supplement to my chambray heavy wardrobe. It's a nice weight for garments, comes in a lot of colors, and has a nice subtle texture to the color and the weave just like chambray. Wish I bought more.

Now to my shirt. I had planned to make a collared, long sleeved, tunic (as opposed to a banded, 3/4 sleeve, dress. Lots of options in this pattern). Actually I made two tunics, the first one out of a rather stiff cotton shirting. I promise you I made that one as specified. The thing is, I can't be satisfied following instructions for long, and certainly not twice in a row, so I deviated a bit from my original plan with my final tunic.

First, and most obviously, I made it a button down shirt. From the muslin I realized the extra volume of the pleat under the neck opening was a bit much for me, and eliminating it didn't effect the fit at the hips. So I extended the placket facing the entire length of the shirt, and cut the front pieces as two rather than on the fold. Then sewed the altered placket to the front opening, turned it to the wrong side, made a line of stitching 1" from the open edge to tack it down, and added buttons and button holes.

Second, I cut the cuff as two pieces. I knew I would mostly wear the sleeves rolled up, and I thought it would be nice to have a contrasting fabric to break up all the print. The outside cuff matches the body fabric, and the inside is chambray. I used Robert Kaufman Union Light for the accent, because it is feather weight and goes with everything. Get some, and keep it on hand, you just never know.

Third, and barely worth mentioning, I cut 1" off of the front hem, and shaved about 1/2" inch more off of the rounded front shirt tail. This way when I wear it with skinny jeans I'm showing maximum leg to lengthen my silhouette (I hope).

As for that lonely hank of yarn, my little cardigan project is making slow progress, as knitting is prone to do. It's sort of a tortoise and hare situation. The tunic is the hare, and is about to go take a nap until the pokey tortoise crosses the finish line. Until then, I'm satisfying the color combination with some suede boots.