Feb 23

Feb 23 Willamins: a Willamette hack

IndieSew brought Shirt Month back again this February. I had renamed February GiveYOUary and declared I was only sewing for other people this month, but the #shirtmonth fomo was strong. Plus, Jessica Swift had sent me some of her incredibly gorgeous rayon from her new Art Gallery Fabrics collection, Lugu, and I knew I wanted to make myself a Willamette with my advance yardage. (I’ll be sewing a dress for Jessica in exchange for these fabrics!)

Lumina Twilight rayon, Lumina Dusk, and Odyssey Dewdrop

I had been eyeing the Perkins shirt dress pattern, but hadn’t pulled the trigger on buying it when I occurred to me I could approximate the look with a few mods to the Hey June pattern I already owned.

Perkins shirt dress by Ensemble Patterns

I didn’t realize the sleeve on Perkins is raglan until just now! But anyway, I wanted to imitate the gathered front shoulder and extra boxy shape.

I sewed view A in size 6. (I’m 5"‘5” with a 35/36” full bust and 38” hips.)

I removed 1.5 inches from the front shoulder, adding that same amount to the yoke in the back. This adjustment was also done to the front facing and sleeve pieces to keep all the seams aligned. When cutting the shirt front, I slashed the pattern piece mid shoulder and spread it about 6 or 8 inches. This extra width was gathered into the yoke.

oh hey. This picture shows the spread was about 6.5” inches.

I used the Lumina Dusk for the yoke facing.

The drape on the rayon is just excellent.

I did a full placket much like Tori did here except I didn’t even bother to sew the plackets down! The buttons and holes hold the plackets in place nicely.

I used the Lumina Dusk to finish the hem with bias. I use the “French” bias binding approach as demonstrated here.

These stunning silver mirrored buttons are from Arrow Mountain. (Out of stock at the time of publishing this post, but Ho-mei assures me they will restock soon! I’ve got my eye on the gold ones now!)

It’s love!! OBVIOUSLY.

It’s cute with the half tuck.