Pastel Pipers

 Years ago, I thrifted an amazing piece of yardage: silk, with a stylized pastel print, on a black ground, featuring flowers birds, castles, and bagpipers.

There were a few print flaws--which probably meant that whoever bought it initially, then donated it, had probably gotten it for a good price...probably a price that convinced them to buy it, even though they knew they'd probably never use it. (It's fun to make up stories about thrifted items.)

And it sat in my stash for a long time, treasured, but no clear idea for use.  Until!   I finally decided that view B of McCall's 5675, with the big bow option, would probably be just right.

And it was!

We'll start with a close up of the print

I even accept the non-jack'o'lantern yellow.  And the pink is black light reactive!

One thing I have noticed about this shirt is that I tie the bow better when it's on my body than when it's on the hanger.  It's un-interfaced silk, so the bow has a lovely drape, and I have confidence I can get it centered when I wear it.

I did pre-wash the silk in a regular washer and dryer laundry cycle, with no problems.  I genuinely have no idea if this fabric is many many decades old, or fewer decades old and meant to evoke the earlier decades--in other words, even if it's from the actual 1970s (as the odd color combination and subject matter seem to indicate), or if it's from the 90s channeling the 70s, it'd still, technically, be vintage.

The pattern calls for traditional facings to finish the neckline and cuff slits, but I did continuous lap plackets instead.  The process was a little fiddly in silk!  But I wasn't aiming to make this project perfectly inconspicuously finished, so I did ditch stitching on the plackets, as well as my usual "press the edges under, sew to the back, flip around, then edge stitch everything" approach to the collar/ties and cuffs.

Despite my lack of overall finesse (we won't talk about the extremely curved parts of the hem), I did think that two small black shank buttons on each cuff would look nicely delicate.

The front is a few inches shorter than the back, due to having to avoid a print flaw that ran the full width of the fabric, which I went with because "shirt with longer back hem" is a common design decision.

One thing that amused me about this is that I am so used to easing in sleeves (even though I don't want to because I know that sleeve ease is unnecessary) that I had to fight with the inclination to try to ease the gathering at the neckline and cuffs.  No no! That's supposed to be there!

Going to note that I once again did add an inch on either side of the center folds, front and back, when cutting this out.  I might feel confident squeezing into a size 12 button up shirt, but I feel like this shirt needs to be extra billowy, even when it isn't made from a wonderfully loud silk.