This is actually a Very Wearable Muslin for another shirt I’ll go into later, but for now, just know that this is yet another Named Saraste Shirt, from their first book, “Breaking the Pattern” (which has mysteriously disappeared from their website for some reason?).
The Saraste might tie with Closet Core’s Pietra in my “Most Made Patterns That Aren’t FehrTrade” stakes! I’ve made the dress variation twice (1st & 2nd), the top version twice (1st and 2nd), and the shirt once before. But this time I needed a bigger size (size 9, the largest!!) so I had a fresh version printed in A0.
Since this is a test version, I searched my stash to see if I had anything suitable, and found this olive green viscose(?) twill from my stash. I’m pretty sure I bought in 2019 or early 2020 from Ditto’s shop in Brighton and it’s has sat in my stash ever since for no particular reason. It’s absolutely lovely quality, and since it’s coincidentally the same width as my custom-printed fabric for the other version will be (140cm wide), I could also use it to gauge how much I need to buy for the other shirt (turns out 1.5m is plenty so long as your fabric isn’t directional). I have no idea how much I paid for it, since this was before I started putting a slip with details in with my fabrics as I store them.
Several of the pieces of this pattern are cut multiple times (like the collar and stand), so I quickly printed off those in A4 so I could make my layout a bit easier on my fabric without needing to “save space” for the other to be cut. It also made things a bit easier to keep track of since I could use the spare paper piece to cut the interfacing, too. It’s little things like this that help me optimise when I’m sewing a pattern for the Nth time!
I left off the back fisheye waist darts (cos my waist is the opposite of nipped in at the moment), and I lengthened the sleeves by 4cm for stylistic choices I’ll go into more on the post for the other shirt. But I guess I have long arms because the sleeves don’t feel particularly long to me here, so I’ll lengthen them again for an exaggerated effect on the next one.
Since the seam allowances are 1cm on this, it’s a PITA to do either flat felled or french seams so I just took the cheat’s way out and overlocked the main seams (like I did in my black silk Claudia shirt). I’m sure some consider that sacriledge but life’s short and I have no qualms about having overlocked seams.
I didn’t really have the right buttons in my stash so I bought 11.5cm olive polyester 4-hole ones from MacCulloch & Wallis. They’re not too bad in daylight, but they’re a bit darker than I was expecting when seen indoors.
Otherwise I love the fit and drape of this! So lush and it’ll be perfect for fall and winter. And I’m especially pleased with how these photos turned out! These might be the first photoshoot in the two years since I was infected with Covid that I don’t hate the way I look. Hurrah for meds and calorie counting starting to give me a life and identity back!!
I’m still waiting on my custom fabric to arrive to make the second version of this pattern, but that probably won’t be until after our short holiday now…