Welcoming Spring with B6026

Another really good pattern from Katherine Tilton for Butterick. And a good color to wake up my wardrobe to spring. I think it is a classic and so will become a TNT for me.

Spring in the southeastern US comes in color waves. It seems that each week there are new shades of spring.

This green shirt-weight linen is from Sawyer Brook, probably purchased a year or so ago. As is always the case with a good linen, it was a delight to sew. With linen, I find I can easily finger press little spots needing it without actually steam pressing. Then when it was complete, the steam iron performed its magic to show off a crisp summer green. And, of course, I'm good with linen wrinkles - rather fond of them, actually.

And this pattern is just so sweet. I love the use of the pin-tucks in the side seam (creating the illusion of a waistline) and in the neckline (framing the face). And there are pin-tucks on the elbow length sleeves, giving the sleeve some shape and style.

The pin-tucks are to be 1/16 inch wide. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't even have a way to accurately measure 1/16 inch. So of course I worried a little. I think mine range from 1/16 to 1/8 inch but it seems to have worked out OK.

The next time I make it - oh, yes, I definitely want to make it again - I will not make tucks. Instead I'll use a double needle to create channels, much as I did on a Chado Ralph Rucci shirt two years ago. I should have made some samples to see if it drew the fabric in enough. I'm betting it would.

This pattern is fitted including fish eye darts in the back. This is refreshing after sewing so many loose-fitting tops. There is enough ease, I think, but I will see if I actually reach for it regularly, or if I retreat to those other tops.

I sewed a size 12 through the shoulders, grading out to a 14 through the bust and then to a 16 through the hips. And I ended up using 3/8 inch SAs in the side seams. So in reality, this is probably size 12-16-18.

Here it is on me. I'm even including a back picture. Normally I would not. But I really like all aspects of this classic sweet summer shirt.

Vogue 1215 - Terminator Tucks

Tailor's Tacks - required here!

Pam Howard's class on Shirt Details starts Friday evening. Hooray! This class will no doubt be fabulous. She is the queen of top-stitching and other details.

Vogue 1215 has more details than she plans to cover in the class so it has required quite a bit of advanced planning. I completed my muslin a few weeks ago now. But I was never happy with the way the pin tucks looked. There are two down each front and both sides of the back. They are curved. One parallels the neck dart and then extends. And they intersect. Yikes!

The intersection just never looked good, IMO. I experimented - stop sewing just ahead of the first tuck and jump over it, carefully sew through it, and other variations on the theme. In fact, they more I looked at the pattern photo, the more I saw lumps in that version too. OK, you do have to look closely. I was ready to accept this little flaw, sort of.

Dart in - ready for *tucks*

At Christmas I received a lovely book called *Manipulating Fabric* with lots of technical details. The author suggests an alternative to ordinary pin tucks. It involves using a twin needle and tightening the bobbin tension. I read this while traveling and could not wait to get home and try it.

I think it's the right solution. Now it does bug me some that these are not tucks. BUT they really do look so, so much better than the real tucks.

lumpy tucks vs. twin needle

Ta-da!