Thursday, January 12, 2012

SAM 1 - Hibiscus from The Sewing Workshop

The Hibiscus shirt was published by the Sewing Workshop years ago. In fact, I cannot find it on their website so maybe it's OOP. I've had it in my stash a while. I kept pulling it out and thinking about it. Then Blue Mooney started the Shirt-A-Month (SAM) challenge on Artisan's Square. I decided it would be my SAM #1.

completed collar & stand
The pattern contains some challenges. The right front goes together like an origami puzzle. I read a review at PR that warned of the need to mark all notches and dots, but I missed a few. On the right front. Yikes!

When I'm making something challenging, I keep the pattern tissue handy to reference again and again. First I had to mock up the right front with the three right front pattern pieces. Then I (re)marked everything. It was still a bit of a 2D-to-3D challenge.

Before inserting collar
The collar stand and collar were very satisfying to make. Sewing friend Lorraine taught the David Coffin method at my ASG neighborhood group a while back. You basically complete the shirt-plus-collar-stand, leaving an opening in the top of the collar stand. Then the finished collar is simply inserted into the opening and it is edge-stitched in place around the collar stand.



shirt sandwiched between stands

right front

right front inside

Finished back


Finished collar and stand

TSW Hibiscus
I kept the outside of the stand on top while sewing, and now wish the inside had been on top, but it still looks pretty good, I think. To Lorraine's (David's) method, I added some stay-stitching on both the upper collar stand and the edge of the finished collar. This made it easier to match up the stitching lines while pinning it.

6 comments:

  1. All your work was worth it, Martha, because how cute is this?! The plaid is great and the contrast touches are perfect.

    This is on my todo pile and I need to get to it!

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  2. Brilliant shirt - 1 down, 11 to go!!! I am going to try this method with the collar next time as it looks and sounds much easier, and gave you perfect results....

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  3. Great shirt and design Martha. I also have the pattern but haven't made this shirt pattern yet. The angles and bias are great. Makes one wonder why they discontinued this pattern and kept others?

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  4. Wonderful combination of fabric and this pattern. I too am re-examing a few older SW patterns for this year. You've got a great start to 2012.

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  5. Your details are so exquisite - love the plaid!

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