My first sewing project finished, and super proud of, is Sewaholic's Granville shirt. I do have a couple of shirt patterns, and as yet an unfinished craftsy course, but I saw Two Random Words blog post on it and decided this was the pattern I Had To Have.
Fitting: I initially cut out a 14 and made a toile.. While it fitted around the bust, it was baggy around my waist and shoulders (a problem I always find) and hugely baggy under the bust. I poured over the photos that Sophie-Lee had posted, hers seemed more fitted, so a recut was needed. I found a fantastic FBA tutorial by Mary on Curvy Sewing Collective and recut my shoulders/neckline at an 8.. graded out to 10 for the bust and down to 14 at the hips. The pattern looked a strange monster, particularly around the waist.. but the fit is great. I lost all the bagginess under the bust and the waist and hips look more streamlined. I still had to reduce my shoulder seams in by 1" further, but that was an easy fix. The sleeve length is a little too long for me, but as I don't intend to wear the sleeves down, it's not a problem.
Materials & Notions: I used a linen cotton mix from my fabric stash and I think the slight stiffness of the fabric suits the structured shape of the shirt well. As I was too impatient to go out and source more interfacing I used what I had available, which might have just been on the too-thick side. I didn't interface the cuffs, as I plan to always roll up the sleeves.
Achievements: I finished a shirt! Haha.. Lots of firsts for me with this project - a collar with a collar stand.. a successful FBA… Plackets - which actually caused me a little confusion in the instructions, but doing a practice run first on scrap fabric helped a lot.. The triangular points are still not entirely symmetrical, but I'm super pleased with the overall look.
Likes: I love the princess seam back - it's super flattering, and the length.. again very flattering. I don't often tuck clothes in, so it's great to have a shirt that also looks good loose. I also love the pattern construction… I needed a good sit down with a cup of tea to figure out some parts (yoke & placket) but I put that down to overall impatience at not reading everything properly the first time round^^
Next time: I will definitely use a less stiff interfacing… and I'm excited to try this in a lighter weight fabric too.. I left off the pockets as I'm not too sure about bust pockets on larger busts.
I love this shirt - I've worn it a few times to work, and as it has, on each time, successfully avoided being easily identified as homemade, it's a winner!
