The Same, but Different: Two Kalle Shirts in Tiger Print Lawn!

I’m back with two fun shirts–identical, but in different colors–the fraternal twins of the shirt world?

I love a good animal print–not the type of print that looks like animal skin, but a print with pictures of animals, and some of my favorites are tigers and leopards. I have no idea why. There just seems to be a number of cute fabrics out there featuring tigers and leopards.

I’m not sure where I first noticed the fabrics I used for my shirts, but my husband got them for me in my two favorite colorways for Christmas and my birthday in 2020. Not only do I have these prints in lawn, last summer I found the same print in a knit jersey. I’m so excited! Its final destiny is yet to be determined.

But back to the fabric at hand! It was designed by Hello! Lucky as part of a collection called Wild and Free for Robert Kaufman, and it’s 100% cotton lawn, 44″ wide, and came from Fabric.com before it shut down (RIP Fabric.com). The pink is “Tigers Orange” and the blue is “Tigers Sunshine”.

Before beginning this project, I had many ideas floating around in my head. I knew I wanted to make the Closet Core Kalle shirt, but should I made two different versions or versions that were the same, but with contrasting plackets, collars, and cuffs, etc., etc.? In the end, I decided to batch sew two of the same version, each in its own color. I have made the cropped Kalle shirt once before in a speckled/splatter paint print lawn and absolutely love it. I wear it a lot and it has served me well, even as I have changed sizes over the years.

This is an older version of the pattern before the company changed its name.

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For my tiger shirts, I chose to make View A, lengthened by three inches. I made a size 18. Originally I was going to make the band collar pictured in View A, but part way through the process, I decided to switch to the standard collar so that you could see a bit of the fun fabric even if I wore these shirts under sweaters.

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I gave some thought to pattern matching, but didn’t let myself get too wrapped up in it. That hidden placket, with its accordion folds, would have been a bit of a mind bender.

I intentionally didn’t pattern match my pockets so that they would be easier to see.

I also forgot to cut out my inner lining for my yokes, but this was fortuitous. If I had cut it out of my tiger fabric, you would have seen some bits of the pattern on the outside. Instead, I cut them out of some scraps of solid pink Cotton + Steel lawn that I had in my stash, which sets off the pattern nicely on the outside.

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This yoke does look a little darker because of the pink of the lining inside, but I still prefer it to seeing bits of the pattern on the yoke lining.

I found just the right buttons at Joann’s in matching colors in their Slimline collection–great basics that cost about a dollar a card. It was tempting to find something really crazy, but with the hidden placket, you’d never see them, and these buttons really were perfect.

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In order to batch sew my shirts, I set up both of my machines with different thread colors. Normally I would always sew my buttonholes on my Elna 3005, which is my newer machine. However, I do actually have a buttonhole attachment for my Singer Featherweight. I told myself that now was the time to learn to use it. As with the Featherweight’s instructions, the instruction booklet for the Buttonholer is excellent.

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It recommended making a little sample of all the different dies and stitch widths and, uncharacteristically, I actually did it! I knew I would never remember what I had done or might want to do in the future otherwise. On my blue shirt, I used the 5/8″ die at a stitch width of four (I think) and went around each buttonhole twice. It worked out really well, and forced me to learn to use my machine more extensively.

I didn’t have too much trouble with the sewing, except for getting the interfaced collar stand of the two-piece/standard collar to fit. In the end, I measured down and in by 5/8″ to find out where the ends of the collar stand should touch the edges of the button plackets. Then, I stretched the shirt to fit the collar stand. I had repinned so many times! I finally decided I would rather just stretch to fit and clip the neck edge after sewing.

A few other notes I made for myself that may be helpful to you if you are sewing this: at the point that you are sewing your buttonholes on the hidden placket, you should be sewing through two layers of fabric. It’s also a good idea to place your buttonholes slightly to the outside of center since the inner fold is partly taken up when you sew the placket down. And if you are confused on the cuffs, note that the angled part of the cuff should be on the top of the sleeve.

Also, you could check out the sewalong on the Closet Core website. It’s a little bit different than the directions at certain points, so if one doesn’t seem clear to you, the other might. I usually find Closet Core instructions really clear and thorough, but anyone can get confused when you are deep in a project or if the instructions don’t explain things in a way that makes sense to you.

I cut these shirts out in September of 2022, and sewed them up in October, finishing just as it started to cool off here for fall. I didn’t wear them much, so I put them away for my future self, and was so happy to take them out once spring hit.

It’s still pretty cool here, but I have managed to wear each one at least once, and I look forward to wearing them a lot more as the weather gets warmer. Both colors work great with my existing pants and shorts. I’m not a huge pattern repeater, but I’m really glad I came back and made this pattern again. I started with three yards of each fabric, and I have just about half a yard left of each, so while I often struggle to use my off-cuts, I’m pretty happy to have some little scraps of these fabrics left. I love them so much. And I am so very happy with my lovely new tiger shirts.

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The Project That Took the Longest: Simplicity 8545 Camisoles in Silk and Cotton

Oh, boy, do I have a backlog of projects to blog! I need to take about a million pictures, so I’m starting with a few of the projects that I don’t have to model. Then when I can rope a family member into taking pictures for me, I’ll try to catch up on the rest.

This particular project is one of the simpler ones I have made, but actually took me forever to finish! Sometime between 2020 and 2021, I cut three camisoles out of some of my larger scraps. I used Simplicity 8545, View B.

I used View A previously to make some brightly colored slips in cotton lawn (you can see them here). I thought a few camisoles to go under transparent or low-cut tops would be a good idea and a useful way to use up some of my offcuts, so a year or two ago (I think) I made a cream colored camisole from a silk lining fabric that a friend had given me.

Camisole Front

Camisole back

Around that time (maybe?), I also cut out two more camisoles from some old Cotton + Steel cotton lawn, so I could have some colorful options. Those two lawn camisoles sat on my “to sew” rack for…a year? Two years?

They became my only UFO’s (unfinished objects). I don’t like UFO’s in sewing, but I didn’t want these badly enough to carry me through to finishing them, so they just sat there. This year I decided enough was enough and tacked them on to one of my big sewing batches. I wasn’t even sure if they would fit when they were finished, but I figured if they didn’t fit me, they would fit someone else. If I never made them, though, the fabric probably wouldn’t get used at all.

For these, I changed the pattern up a little to make them easier to make and nicer to wear. I found with the slips that I really didn’t need the zipper to get them on and off, so I eliminated that and just sewed the back up. I also eliminated the facings, which constantly flip out on my slips and drive me nuts. Eventually I hope to sew them down, but I really hate going back into old projects, so I haven’t gotten to that yet.

Camisole front

Camisole back

Camisole front; using up different colors of bias tape from my stash to make this nice and colorful

Camisole back

Once I finally decided to sew up the lawn camisoles, the goal was to get them done as quickly as possible, while still sewing quality(ish) garments. I picked one thread color for both (pink), serged my seam allowances, and used whatever bias binding I had on hand to save time and use up materials. (You have no idea how much random bias binding I have!) I had made bias binding for the silk camisole and used beautiful French seams and a tiny rolled hem on that one, but these two just needed to get DONE! For a little extra insurance, I also sewed a 3/8″ seam in the back and on the sides instead of the 5/8″ seam allowance the pattern called for.

French seams and an imperfect tiny rolled hem…but you have to practice to get better!

Fast rather than fancy

I’ll spare you the details of exactly how I sewed the bias on, but my goal was to sew it so that I could try the camisoles on before finalizing the length of the shoulder straps. That meant making the final attachments in the front. Those joins got a little ugly, but it didn’t matter–these are meant to go under other clothes and I wanted them done.

Not my best sewing, but this was a case of ‘done is better than perfect’

Happily, they do fit ok, and I love how bright and fun the two lawn ones are and how practical the cream one is. Have I worn them? Maybe the cream one a few times, but not the lawn ones yet. I hope I end up wearing them, but even if I don’t, someone else could. I’m definitely happy with the modifications I made. And I’m happy that I didn’t give up on these and throw them in the scrap bin. This is a good, basic yet versatile pattern with some fun options, and even though I haven’t made the dresses or shirts, I’m glad I tried the slip and camisole views.

Thinking About Layering with Simplicity 8545

Hi, everyone!  I have a quick post today on a fun layering option–a slip dress!  I started to think about this last summer when I bought McCall’s 7948.  The dress on the cover is made of eyelet.  I made my own eyelet dress last year and underlined it with an inexpensive cotton voile, but I thought that it could be so much fun to have colorful slips to wear underneath other dresses with any degree of transparency.  Then I wouldn’t have to line or underline the dress and you could change out the slips to have different colors show through.  Once I saw Alexis Bailey’s version of McCall’s 7948 with a colorful slip underneath, I knew I had to do it.  It’s taken me a long time, but I finally got it done.

I was looking for a slip pattern that was for woven fabric cut on the straight grain, rather than a bias or stretch slip.  Simplicity 8545, View A was perfect because it was made to be just that kind of slip dress to go under transparent dresses and tops, patterns for both of which are included.  I had some Cotton + Steel cotton lawn from a sale at Pintuck & Purl, and it was great for this pattern.

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I often have to lower darts on patterns and I completely forgot to check before cutting my fabric if that would be necessary on this one.  Assuming it would be, I sort of fudged things and lowered the dart point since I couldn’t lower the whole dart.  It turned out that this wasn’t necessary, but as this will be under another dress, there’s no need to worry too much.  Now I know for next time.  I think I graded from an 18 at the bust to a 20 at the waist and hips, which was a good idea.  There is a good amount of ease at the waist, but not as much at the hips.  Grading made it all work just right, though.

front

Other modifications included shortening the straps 1″ beyond the recommended point and shortening the bottom of the dress 4″ from the raw edge.  I want it to be around or a little shorter than the dresses I plan to wear over these slips, so I picked the shortest my dresses might be likely to be and hemmed the slips around there.

back

I noticed again that my natural waist is 1″-2″ above the pattern’s waist mark.  Interesting…  Maybe I’m a bit short-waisted.  Also, I probably need a swayback adjustment, but I just can’t be bothered.  You could most likely eliminate the zipper on this pattern and still get it over your head just fine.  And lastly, if I were to make this pattern again, I would try eliminating the facings and use bias tape to finish the top edge.

Inside back (above) and a close-up of the zipper from the outside (below)

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Inside front (above) and a close-up of the facings and strap (below)

I would like to try the camisole view of this pattern (View B) to wear under shirts that aren’t quite opaque enough in the summer.  I have some more lawn, so I might get around to that at some point.  I suppose it would be wise and practical to have a white slip, too, but that seems less exciting than brightly colored slips.  🙂  The dresses I hope to wear over this are currently in progress–the aforementioned McCall’s 7948 in green eyelet and my favorite dress pattern from last summer, Simplicity 8689, in a light pink cotton gauze.  Hopefully once I make them, I’ll actually wear them to swan about the house instead of wearing stretchy pants!  Or I’ll wear them over stretchy pants!  😉