Frankie Day 3

Please excuse that fold across the left front - just a random mis-press.

Progress continues on my first Frankie, a new pattern from the Sewing Workshop. I'm using navy-blue silk charmeuse that has a slight pebbled texture. At this point, it looks finished but it's not.

After hand-basting, I inserted the sleeves by machine. And I made a decision about the finish on those raw edges. I found some very light weight silk remnants in stash to use for binding them. I cut strips on the bias and machine sewed them to the raw edges of the set-in sleeves. I placed the bias strips up against the feed dogs so that the bias would not stretch too much. Now I'll wrap the binding around the raw edges and slip-stitch in place.

I also decided on a 3" deep hem on the body of the shirt. The pattern calls for a standard shirt tale finish which would have resulted in a 3/4" hem. This shirt is long - long even for a tunic. There was a time in my life when this would have been a dress. Sigh.

The fronts are cut straight on the cross grain and so I was able to easily create the 3" hem. I stay-stitched 1/4 inch from the raw edge and pressed at 3". Then I machine stitched the hem in place. 

The back hem required a bit more work. It is slightly shaped, dipping lower in center back. I could have just whacked it off straight across the grain, rendering it similar to the fronts. I'm glad that I remembered that the gentle curve adds elegance to the overall shape. So I marked 3" from the raw edge and cut it off, retaining the original curve. The piece removed became a facing by recutting it to match the smaller size of the remaining back hem area.

I attached the hem facing at the bottom with 1/4 inch seam allowance, pressed the seam open and then pressed it in place. As on the front, I stay-stitched the top of the hem 1/4 inch from the edge to make it easy to fold under and machine stitch.

Here you can see the finished back hem:

The choice to shorten this garment was not an easy one. The extra length in this tunic could be dramatic. And this navy blue silk is dramatic. But I feel sure I'll get more use from it in a traditional tunic length. And I love deep hemlines on a tunic, as it adds weight and drape.

The shoulders on this shirt run wide. I'm not sure why - it's not intended to be a dropped shoulder line. I checked the pattern tissue against a couple of Sewing Workshop patterns that fit me well and the Frankie shoulders are 3/4" wider than the others, all in size M. I was able to fudge 3/4" off the shoulder and still insert the sleeves. Otherwise this size Medium runs the same as other size Mediums I have made from The Sewing Workshop (TSW). Beware of the wide shoulders if you have a standard size in TSW.

I am pretty jazzed about this shirt at the moment, even though lots of work remains. The next step is buttonholes. Fingers crossed, mouth held just right. Send good karma, OK?