A Melilot shirt in dark floral

And the sewing of tried and tested patterns continues! I thought after the last couple of posts 'showcasing' very plain, but necessary winter tops, I'd show you something sightly more interesting. I love the Deer and Doe Melilot shirt pattern and have sewn it up many times in both the long and short sleeved versions. There will be more in the future too.

For this version, I used a bright floral pattern on a black background 100% viscose. I think this was bought from Guthrie and Ghani well before Christmas. I doubt there's any left now!

I wanted to 'streamline' the sewing of the sleeve plackets so I cut a 2" wide strip of fabric on the bias and just bound the edges of the sleeve placket cut. Sorry I haven't got any photos of this. It worked beautifully and after a press, sits flat as it should do. I find pressing and sewing the tiny hems on the plackets very fiddly to do and always end up steam pressing my fingers. I had to do something to improve this construction!

The buttons are plain black ones from Edinburgh Fabrics. It's difficult finding plain, black buttons for shirts. Or indeed shirt buttons suitable for women's shirts. Why is this?

Here's how I wear it at work, with a cardigan over it. Explains the creases after wearing it for 5 hours!

Much needed winter tops

With the recent chilly weather, I needed to sew some more tops for winter. You're getting two in this post today, you lucky things! They are both a similar shade of grey, which wasn't planned, so you'll need to pay close attention. This first one is the Sew House Seven Toaster...One, I think. This is a new to me pattern and I enjoyed the challenge of sewing a different collar shape. Here is the finished top work with a cosy scarf.

I bought the fabric years ago, possibly from Remnant Kings in Glasgow? I think it has some natural fibre but there's also man made but it's still comfortable to wear. 

Em...I sewed the lovely Audrey Hepburn-esque sixties stand-up neck...and didn't like how it sat on me. I thnk I have broad shoulders #swimmer. I used stretch iron on interfacing across the shoulder and all the way up the neck which worked well as I didn't think the fabric would stand up on its own. So...I didn't like it but wanted to rescue it so I cut the neckline from the top below, and sewed a neck band. That worked! I like the on-the-shoulder-sleeves and I don't think I added any length to them so beware if you have short or normal length arms, unlike my gorilla arms! 

The other think I like about this pattern is the split at the side seams and the back longer than the front. I was also trying out the zig-zag stitch on my new-16-months-ago computerised Janome sewing machine. So, all in all, a wearable if not perfect top that'll keep me cosy.

And here's another one! This one was made using a ponte fabric with a decent amount of viscose from the Cloth Spot and using the same traced off pattern as this top. 

The neck is a little narrower than the one on the Sew House Seven top above and I prefer this one. I'm not sure if you can see the subtle variegated pattern of greys in this fabric as these photos aren't great? 

So, two new grey tops for chilly weather and not exciting things to sew but very much needed for the winter. Are you sewing up anything essential but boring to get you through the winter?