Friday, July 15, 2011

Shifting Gears...

As much as I want to work on my Genome Quilt, a slightly more pressing need has arisen and it has been temporarily put aside.


Shirt Fabric - Top two from Tessuti, bottom one from Clegs. (All a bit crumpled as the photo was taken immediately after removing them from the washing machine to pre-wash the fabric)

I have (finally) found some work, but have discovered that my wardrobe doesn't really cater for work in the corporate world, so urgently need to correct that little issue. Earlier this week I bought a suit jacket and a shirt, but while that's good enough for an interview that's not quite going to be enough to get me through a whole work week! I need at least one more shirt. Rather than buying another shirt, however, I have got fabric for three different shirts in my stash that I really need to get around to cutting into. Thus, I have the weekend to transform at least one of those pieces of fabric into a wearable shirt.

 

I have a number of shirt patterns that I've made before (JJ, Emily and New Look 6732), but none of them are quite suitable. My JJ is great but as it doesn't have a proper collar doesn't feel smart enough for the corporate environment. The Emily shirt I made is in black poplin and is more suited to being a waitor than a receptionist, and the version of New Look 6732 is just a bit of a disaster and makes me feel like a 9 year old (who can't lift her arms more than 45 degrees).

Left: "Emily" Shirt, Right: "JJ" Shirt

I also have a shirt that I bought at Next for my graduation from Uni, but when I put it on the other week I discovered that the bottom half of the back panel is disintegrated, and despite trying to repair it, more rips keep appearing. That shirt fits really well, so I'm tempted to cut it up and make a pattern from it.

"Next shirt"

So, decisions - What do you think? Stick with the JJ pattern, but have a go at adding the Emily collar? Or dismantle the Next shirt and make a pattern from that?

3 comments:

  1. I like the JJ shirt! It doesn't have a collar but it still looks smart. As the sleeves have a band at the end which kind of mirrors where the collar bit is, I'm not sure that adding a proper collar would work (or even if that made any sense whatsoever!)?

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  2. Dismantle the next shirt and make a pattern. Those other 2 shirts look really well made (I thought they were bought shirts until I read thru your post) so I think you'll be able to copy the next shirt and if there are any bits that give you trouble you've got the other two shirts to fall back on for altering your 'next' pattern. Congrats on the new job. What sort of field are you in that you need to dress corporate? For some reason I thought you were in science (maybe coz of the genome quilt name)? Anyway I love the genome quilt - it looks awesome! Can't wait to see how it'll look once its all quilted.

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  3. Yep, dismantle the Next shirt you love. If you are confident that you can copy it, do it. You'll be happiest with a design you love.

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Comments make me smile :)

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