Sewing Vapor

Well, vapor print.  Well, no, actually, it's a marbleized kinda print.

Anyway.

I used Simplicity 3263 from 1950, view 3, which is the same thing I used for the bodice on the last dress I made.

 This time I made it as a shirt and followed the directions.  Mostly.


The first little change I made was to cut the waist just a bit roomier by not following the pattern all the way into the V of the waist at the side seam.  I didn't follow the dart lines exactly, sewing just inside them below the waist and so adding maybe 3/8" all the way around.  The resulting waist fit is more forgiving than it was with the dress (I don't need corset aid to get it zipped...)

I also decided to try a lapped zipper, since I see so many vintage sewing bloggers being so happy with them.  I have tried sewing lapped zippers before, but they never quite worked the way they were supposed to.  Well, much like the placket band of the last two shirts, I've found that I can easily sew a lapped zipper, and that the result is quite nice.  Huh.

Also following the lead of some other sewing bloggers, I decided to use bias tape to finish the hem.  I already had the bias tape out to finish the arm holes, which was following the directions. (Actually, the pattern called for cutting bias strips and folding them in half to make the facings for the arm holes, and I didn't have nearly enough of the fabric left to do that, or to make shaped facings, so--bias tape it was.) ((Lack of cloth also demanded piecing the back facing and the under collar.))  I went ahead and top stitched the hem bias tape at 5/8", since it would be tucked in; the arm holes (and neck facing) I top stitched near the edges of the garment for decoration, then pick stitched along the edges of the facings to keep 'em from flipping to the outside.

So, here it is

 Top stitched along the edges of the collar, too...which really only served to highlight the fact that I still haven't mastered the art of turning a smooth curved collar.  More seam allowance notches are needed, I guess.

The lapped zipper

I thought it would be a problem, having the lap on the back and opening toward the front, but it has laid flat and not gapped open and exposed the zipper teeth all day, so that's good.

And I am wearing this today!  Along with the 19774 Simplicity 6573 bias-cut A-line skirt I made to go with that...odd...shirt.  The colors are a pretty good coordinate, as are these shoes I've had for years.

 Have I mentioned yet where the shirt cloth is from?  On winter solstice last year, I visited a Goodwill and found a bed-in-a-bag bag (y'know, the big plastic bags, vaguely cube-shaped, with the giant cheap zipper) full of cloth.  It was obviously someone's quilting stash, so mostly cottons in small yardages with a few pieces of 1 yard or larger.  Quite a few of the prints looked good for doll dresses, so I won the argument with myself to spend the $9.99 asking price for the bag.  There were several different marbleized prints in oh-so-early-1990s colors in there, and this was one.  (As was the batik used in the...odd...shirt.)  I convinced myself that this was more mauve than dusty rose and finally decided to make...something...from it.

If I pretend it looks more like vapor than marbleized paper, then I'll have worn ghost-ish clothes for the last four five days, and without even trying.  Huh.