I have long had the intention of adding more shirts to my clothes rotation, but hadn’t had the motivation until this past week… well, two days ago, in fact, when I browsed through the PR website and thought I’d give the Sewing Bee 2015 a try. What do I have to lose? And it provided a reason to sew a new shirt.
Enter a vintage Liberty tana lawn called Judy. I only had about 
40 inches of full width yardage with a few decent-sized scraps left from Vogue 7340, which was sewn a few years ago. I had hoped to make a Sewaholic Granville, or another Vogue 8747, but there wasn’t enough fabric. So I turned to Burda and remembered I had traced of 1/2011 #107 a couple of years ago and done nothing with it. So I cut out the traced pattern and after careful tissue fitting, determined the only adjustment I needed was to shorten the back waist. I didn’t even need to do an FBA, believe it or not. There is about 4″ of ease just across the bust, even for me, and I usually require a 1.5 or 2-inch FBA on tops.
I did trim the seam allowances off the top of the fronts, tapering to nothing at the neckline, to facilitate a forward shoulder.
I made a few changes to the pattern. First, I did not add petersham ribbon down the front bands. I didn’t like the look much.
I shortened the sleeve cuffs by about one inch. I didn’t think I had short arms.
But I will probably wear them open and turned up because I like the look of the ‘wings’.
The back inverted pleat gave me a little trouble, fitting it over the hips. I tapered it below the waist so that it followed the hip shape without flaring out like a sail.
The collar gave me some grief. It has a shaped stand that is sewn into an elongated “c” cut out of the collar. You can see the pattern pieces here. I used Fashion Sewing Supply’s “Pro-Woven Shirt Crisp Fusible” because I really love crisp shirt collars/cuffs/bands. It is v.e.r.y. crisp, and I think this contributed to the difficulty I had attaching the collar to the stand. In the end I trimmed the seam allowances to a mere 1/4″, clipped them excessively, and it came together.
And there’s my new shirt. (I don’t plan to wear it with these pants, btw, which I usually reserve for wear with the Donna Karan Big Shirt aka Vogue 1038. I just haven’t made a decent fitting pair of green-ish trousers that fit yet.) I love Liberty tana lawn, so I know this will get a lot of wear, even as the weather cools down. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at just how warm tana lawn can be over the years.
Mezzo Couture 
The blouse style and fabric are both absolutely perfect for you – love it with your hair colour!! (i’ve been MIA for awhile so it’s new to me though not sure how new to you! ^_^)
Thanks! I think it’s a bit grandmotherish with the platinum hair, but hey! The hair has been a year’s experiment at this point…. I’m still calling it an experiment, although everyone seems to like it.
change is fun, and healthy, even if it’s passing – hair is a great way to experiment cause it grows back! lol 🙂 I had mine super boy-short for awhile & it was fun being someone different even if it wasn’t permanently “me” ^_^
I love this pattern! I’ve made 4 blouses from this pattern in various fabrics, it’s so forgiving! Looks lovely on you and the Liberty print works brilliantly!
Thanks! I was so surprised this pattern fit so well right off the page. It’s definitely going to be one I’ll be using again.
Oh I think that fabric suits you and the pattern so well!
I always admire well made shirts because I find them quite tricky to do well. This is a great shirt, really flattering and with nice little details to make it just that bit different.
Very pretty! I love all the feminine detailing.
Nice fabric! Looks like you got a good fit too! I like the way you did the sleeves.
Wow, I have a half-finished version of this shirt. Likewise, I didn’t have to do an FBA, surprisingly. I only stopped making the shirt because my fabric was a little bit see-through and I wasn’t crazy about how I could see the back pleat through it. Now I must finish it. Yours is great and what’s not to like about Liberty!! PS Likewise, I was going to skip the petersham.
Very flattering, both colors and style:) Enjoy wearing it!
That is a very pretty shirt, and one I seem to have missed from the Burda magazine. Given how good it looks, and that you didn’t need to do a FBA I must dig it out.
Enjoy wearing your lovely shirt.
This is so lovely, and you look great in it. Yay for the sewing bee if it inspired this!
Such a feminine shirt without looking like a camp shirt and boring. Love the sleeves and cuffs and even the little rounded point of the collar. The fit is perfect with real darts and shaping…so happy to see something with the potential to work on so many bodies and not the usual flat front and flat back with drag lines we see on other blogs.Just enough gathers for bust ease and the back pleat…so practical and stylish!
I am very pleasantly surprised by this pattern. Sometimes Burda surprises me in a good way. As for the flat front/back shirts that are so trendy these days…. every time I try one on I wish for a cosmetic reduction job…. 😀
Most of those patterns are designed for 12 year olds, so very easy to pass them by! No darts, no princess lines, no gathers? no problem…not for me!
That has got to be up there with one of the most beautiful liberty florals I’ve seen in all my days – it works really well on you! Love the shaping of the shirt – so flattering (the cuffs folded up works great!). Lovely work 🙂
Thank you! The colours are what made me fall in love with this print.
Georgeous fabric, great shirt on you.