I made a special present to my niece in the winter by allowing her to request any type of garment to be sewn for her. She is a teenager and I thought she might pick a cute top or a sundress but she requested a shacket. Sometimes with sewing it’s hard to duplicate a current trend, the patterns are always a bit behind. Luckily with shops like my etsy shop Stylesewciety we have access to so many patterns from the past because almost every trend repeats itself. These are the types of images my niece sent me
Ok….so it’s a shirt but it has to be in the right proportions. If you make a men’s shirt like this it might not sit right. Also, this trend is also shown in a closer fit so I wasn’t exactly sure how to make it without the exact pattern and the exact one my niece had in mind.
On top of that, we are in a lockdown so I couldn’t measure my niece exactly. As mentioned in my prior post, I used vintage mccalls 8960, which is from 1990 and a pdf pattern from Etsy. Neither was exactly right but I think by mixing the two, I got it right. I think I would have liked to have a slightly different collar but this shirt didn’t have a collar stand which made mixing a new collar in tough. I am split on the buttons as well, I think I should have made them bigger but then on some of the shackets I saw, the buttons were shirt sized. Also the fabric, I liked my pick but overall it was my ONLY pick. Fabricland had nothing to make this with unless I used polar fleece – yuck. Corduroy was what I was able to find; I wouldn’t have minded a lightweight wool….but natural fibers are few and far between at Fabricland.
I couldn’t try it on my niece but I have it on my mannequin on the smallest size and it seems to fit closer (will not look like a men’s shirt when it’s on) but with enough room for another shirt underneath. I am not sure if she will like it because hand sewn clothes are always different from the pictures you saw in an online store or in person. I think they are nicer but if you have your heart set on a shirt from Aritizia….nothing will ever compare, even if it is better. So in my heart, I just hope she sees the hours of effort and love and can feel a big hug around her when she looks at it. It would be amazing if she loved it but teens can be fussy. The good part if she doesn’t like it …she will never ask me to sew for her again. Which means more cool stuff for me!
I sewed a bathing suit last week as well but I want to take some pictures of me in it before doing a full post. In the meantime….look what I made! I love the look, not sure how it looks on me but I am pretty excited to do a full expose on this pattern. The only reviews I can find are low on details and/or mostly free pattern given for a post types of thing (aka not very honest). I am going to blow this pattern out of the water when I review it! Opian patterns….I am coming for you.
Style Sewciety 