Thursday, July 27, 2017

Boho shirt (and a bonus tip!)

A while back I shared with you the Scout Tees I made, using a pattern I picked up at the cute shop, Needle in a Fabric Stash in California. Well here's the cool thing! The owner of the shop (Sue) designed an add on pattern for the Scout Tee, called the Boho Shirt, and I bought that too! You can pick up your own (along with the Scout Tee pattern) here. Once I knew I had the sizing right for the Scout Tee, I couldn't wait to jump in and try this variation.
I made mine a little longer than Sue's pattern called for (I like my tunics a little long) and I love the way it turned out! The big pockets are a huge plus. If you lengthen or shorten the "skirt"  piece, don't forget to reposition the pockets  My Boho Shirt is made from two Cotton and Steel fabrics.

Then I thought, hmmm, this would make an adorable summer dress! And indeed it does...
This fabric is inexpensive cotton from Joanns and I rather like it! I'd love to make another from a drapier fabric, maybe an Art Gallery which is softer. But this one is totally wearable! Again, I lengthened the "skirt" pieces (these are cut at 27" X width of fabric). 

And here's your bonus tip of the day. I always cut my garment pieces with a rotary cutter. I seem to have more control over that than scissors. Probably because, despite being left handed, I scissors cut right handed. The rotary cutter I can use with my left hand. Anyways.... when I sew my garments I finish all possible seams with french seams. Every now & then, however, there's a seam that cannot easily be done this way.  When this happens, I dig out my pinking shears and trim the seam allowance to prevent fraying.

The other day I bought a pinking blade to put on one of my rotary cutters. (Ally & I were cutting bandanas for the dogs, haha, another story for another day). Anyways, I thought to myself, why not cut my garment pieces out with the rotary blade and save a step later on? Brilliant!

This worked perfectly! I'll be using this trick on all my future garments. Why didn't I think of that sooner???

3 comments:

Kathy E. said...

Sometimes the greatest ideas come to us when we least expect it! I have one of these blades, but use it for cutting paper to make cards. I'd never thought of using it on fabric to cut pattern pieces...duh! It sure will cut down on an added step to keep those edges from fraying. Your shirt and dress is cute on you! Thanks for sharing!

Debbie said...

Very clever!!

Ondrea said...

I really admire your many sewing skills. Beautiful clothing indeed.