Tulle Star

 I am developing a theory of what I'm calling Unwise Sewing Adventures, and this project would definitely be one of those

 

 Yes, it's a long sleeve button up shirt made from a holofoil star spangled tulle.

Nothing about it was a good idea.

It was so much fun to make.

I had acquired the tulle years ago (JoAnn clearance, I think gift from someone online) and bundled it into the stash and didn't do anything with it (besides a very fluffy doll skirt.)

 When I went to the creative re-use store for the first time in late May, I picked up this copy of Simplicity 1538 (mostly because I hadn't been too thrilled with the shirt I made from McCall's 6613/Butterick 6841)

I also picked up some dark pink cotton that I want to make into a button up shirt, but I wanted to test this pattern before committing to my good cloth.

Which didn't necessarily mean I was going to try it with a similar fabric...  Last time I'd sorted through the pertinent part of my fabric stash, I'd had the idea of making a button up shirt from the starry tulle.  I acknowledged that the idea was not necessarily bad, but admittedly unwise.

After the successful ridiculousness/ridiculous success of the mixed print early 80s ruffly abomination shirt, I decided to go ahead and embrace the idea that potential success would outshine potential failure.

Besides, you can make a button up shirt from lightweight cotton, so why not tulle?

One of the bigger technical issues was that I will not give up interfacing on areas like the front bands, sleeve bands, and all parts of the collar.  I definitely couldn't use normal white iron-on interfacing, and I didn't want to go purchase some proper sheer black tricot knit interfacing.

So I used more tulle.

It's a fine black tulle, from one of those rolls of tulle you find in craft stores and Halloween displays.

It worked out fairly well, helped by the fact that even a very low iron heat was enough to melt the adhesive on the stars, so it ended up sorta fused to the fashion fabric.

A lot of stars ended up on the iron sole plate, too.  I carefully levered those off with needles.

For the most part, the stitching went well.  The bottom hem is not included in the most part.  I may have stretched it a bit while sewing, and could probably pick it out and sew it again, but I'm not going to, because it will be obscured against lower layers of clothing, if not outright tucked in to a waistband of some sort.

I made most of the seams with my usual edge stitching followed by top stitching, with the added step of trimming the seam allowance before doing the top stitching.

I did just top stitch around the sleeve/armscye (no edge stitching), trimming close to the stitching after.  Cutting a single layer of tulle in close proximity to a curved seam, also made of tulle, is a bit...exacting.

I had considered simply serging the side/sleeve seams, but I decided to go ahead and make french seams (and not worry about if the first seam allowance stuck out anywhere.)

I did my usual approach of pressing the front bands sleeve bands, and lower edge of one side of the collar band before sewing them to the wrong side of the garment, then flipping the pressed edges around the seam allowances and edge stitching from the outside.

The shadows cast by this project are a lot of fun

Dur to the nature of the fabric, the back of this project looks a lot like the front, at least when it's on a hanger.

I did make the decision to place the inner layer of the back yoke with the surface of the fabric facing outward, so the inner stars would be as shiny as possible, as well as the layer potentially against the skin being the side without the plastic stars exposed.

Now.

Am I ever going to wear this?  Anything's possible.

but

You can't wear something you haven't made, right?

No matter how unwise it is.