Colette. Sencha {minus} neckline view 1 {plus} Crepe neckline view 2 = new awesome shirt!!

I am the master of headline writing, don’t you think?? So here’s the deal. I recently finished (sort of) my long-neglected Beignet. This (as yet unpictured) Beignet is made of purple wool and has yellow buttons. That may change, the buttons are causing me angst. To ease the angst and hopefully make the buttons look better, I thought that making a nice new Sencha from my giant stash of voile was the correct next step (click here to see my first Sencha, made of a cotton knit!) I mean, the first step to fixing crooked buttons is obviously making a coordinating blouse, right?

I went with view 1 – the basic neckline. The results were unfortunate. High necklines are not my friend. Not unless I’m going for the droopy boob look and/or the slightly choked vibe. I found myself in the odd position of having to fix the neckline of my Sencha in order to get the buttons on my Beignet to look good. Sewing is such a strange hobby, isn’t it? I was inspired by my Crepe wrap dress, which has similar sleeves to the Sencha – cut as part of the bodice. I used a nice piece of pink chalk to draw a sweetheart neckline right onto the Sencha! And look! It worked! Gosh, I look happy, don’t I?

As far as the size and placement, I eyeballed the neckline of the Crepe for a few minutes and traced it a few times with my finger, then drew the new neckline onto the Sencha – I folded in half, along the center front, and used a rotary cutter to cut along my chalklines. I used Gertie’s tutorial to draft facings for the neckline. I had cut strips of the voile on the bias to bind off the neckline of the first version, but didn’t want to try to turn the corners of the sweetheart neckline while binding, so facings it was. And I think you know how much I dread facings. I was forced to once again employ a decorative stitch to keep those darn facings from flapping around! Side note – I normally like the Pellon Shape Flex fusible interfacing – you know, the stuff that’s actually woven, not made from weird, mushed together mystery material. I didn’t have any at home, so I busted into my stash of fusible weft insertion – love what it does to the fabric, HATE what it did to my iron and ironing board cover…

As for the rest of the insides, I serged the side seams and the shoulder seams – and anyone who’s made this shirt knows there’s some crazy time around how the arms are done. For anyone interested (and familiar with what I’m talking about), I serged up to where the little sleeve seam sticks out. I had clipped in 5/8 of an inch at that point, so I could fold back the the shirt and veer off with the serger. Then I stitched (with my sewing machine) the rest of the way to the little circles. For anyone who hasn’t made a Sencha (and probably most of you who have), sorry for the gobblydegook!

Obv, I stitched around the sleeve hems as well with the feather stitch. The pattern says to hand stitch the folded edge down, but I wasn’t sure about how that would look on such thin fabric. I will probably stitch in the ditch along the shoulder seam before I wear out in the wild.

Next time, I’ll probably cut the shirt a bit longer – I ended up doing a rolled hem on the serger at the bottom in order to keep as much length as possible.

I scored some awesome pink translucent buttons at my favorite antique shop! For fifty cents!

Here’s a closeup. I love closeups! You can see how scrappy my buttonholes look…

I’m really happy with this version – my only sadness is that I made the alteration on the fly and will have to transfer it back to the pattern for later versions, and I won’t get it quite the same, I’m sure. I’ve loved the Sencha, with the wonderful tucks giving it shape and the cute little sleeves. I had a hard time getting behind the neckline options – as I’m sure anyone else with a full bust can understand! Even the keyhole option, while something, still made me feel choked up and droopy. And this little sweetheart neckline gives a nice open shape while not making the whole top too loose – something to consider with the sleeves cut the way they are! Oh! And I just remembered – I dropped the top point of the tucks (darts?) on the front by nearly two inches. I’ve found with most Colette patterns at my size that the points of the darts are much too high!

And with that, I’ll close with a few more views… here’s the view from the back – I’m torn on how much it spreads apart over my hips – I actually sort of like the effect, but perhaps will grade up future versions a bit – this size is great in a knit, but in a woven, well, we’ll see…

And here’s a shot showing how it works as a suit! It will work as a fruit!! Or not. Also, these trousers always make me feel like I’m one of the ghosts from pac-man. If I only liked trousers more, I’d spend some time finding a pattern that works for me! This wide legged look makes my legs look remarkably short! And my head looks giant! Hmmmmm… what cut of trousers will reduce the apparent circumference of my noggin?

And finally, here’s me, wishing it was summer and/or I was in the original cast of Grease. Rizzo or Sandy?? Ah, probably Frenchie…