Dear Readers,Happy New Year!! I hope that you are enjoying a pleasant and peaceful holiday season. I have disappeared for a while again, and it's likely that it will take me a few weeks before I can make it again on the blog. Since last weekend, I moved (semi) permanently back to New York City. Over the last month, I've been traveling to find an apartment (the whole lease thing is soooo complicated), getting my visa, going back to France for some cheese&wine time, packing all my things and settling down. As with every move, the mixture of excitement and sadness sometimes becomes overwhelming.Regarding sewing, I now notice that I came to a full circle. Before coming to Haiti, I sewed and shirt dress (this one) and now a shirt dress will be the last thing that I've sewn there. I can say during the almost 3 years I spent in this country, I've improved my shirt making skills and this makes the entire process very enjoyable. One of the things that I enjoy the most about sewing shirts is that I can do it all on my industrial machine (except buttonholes) and that the inside is as clean as the outside.The pattern is a lengthened version of my white shirt, which was initially derived from the Grainline Archer. Although it's not perfect yet, it feels nice to have a pattern that can produce a decent shirt with major alterations. I do want to make some changes to future versions though :
While in France, I wore this dress with a sweater, tights and boots. My sleeves were not rolled-up and this is something that hasn't happened in a while. It made me realize that i/ I was to radical when I shortened them, they are missing 1/2 to 1 inch and ii/ the cuff is way to wide, on my wrist.
I now find the collar a bit wide, especially in relation to the stand. I want to draft an alternative very narrow collar.
The length is manageable but maybe slightly on the short side, ahem ahem...
Finally, I'm still bothered by something that looks like an excess of length in the upper back. I pinned it out once (1 inch!!) but it would also require altering the sleeve head in some weird way which I still haven't figured out...
The fabric is a Japanese cotton purchased at Mood during spring trim to New York City and it's probably the best thing out of this garment. It's soft and strong at the same time, light but not too see-through and I have the feeling that it will age well. My main concern was using an interfacing that would not make it to heavy in the placket/collar/cuffs.I do want to do a post where I round up the different tips/tutorials that I gathered over the last 3 years and that I know use as my standard for my all my shirt. I may do it before I manage to set up my sewing operation (yes, I'm serious like that). Let me know if you know of any resource that should not be overlooked!Finally, in January last year I had made only one resolution here, which was doubling my number of post. In 2014, I posted only 23 times so in 2015 I wanted to reach 46... .... .... (embarassed silence) .... Unfortunately, I ended up posting only 13 times... Oops!! It looks like regular blogging is just not compatible with my life, oh well... In 2016, I will keep doing what I can and hopefully you will keep reading me! The good thing is that I can only (hopefully) improve from here!That's it for 2015, sewing and Haiti for now. I hope you are enjoying your loved ones and I will be back soon!