New Look 6160: opinion requested!

Yes, you all passed your "what do you see in this spot" test from my last post! It's a hummingbird gathering nectar from a flower. I wasn't sure if it was apparent or not. I think after seeing the original image, I wasn't so sure it was obvious anymore. lsaspacey, oh wow with the Alabama Stitch Book. It's started some ideas spinning in my head.

So check this out, this will be my entry in the SPR refashion contest. Brown with turquoise is such a great color combo! The asterisk is a reverse applique. I followed the "That Darn Kat" tutorial--which is a super easy to follow tutorial!



Tonight I kicked it into high gear and cranked out that shirt, New Look 6160, view B. All weekend long I basically picked apart New Look 6808 view C, which I made in the summer of 2008. It never saw daylight because I hated it and was ill-fitting. Anyway, I picked apart 6 darts, 2 side seams, 2 sleeves, 1 collar over the weekend. I kept the shirt hem intact. I cut out the sleeve lining and folded it over to hem it.

Before:

Don't let that smile deceive you. It's another one of those annoyingly wide necklines and weirdy collars (though the weirdy collar was totally my fault). This pattern was meant for wovens and I made the bodice and sleeves with a knit, mistake. (I used a woven for the sleeve lining and the collar, though...sigh).


Picked apart:

After:


I have a new found respect for refashionists. Though Antoinette previously told me that you really need to start with either one really big shirt (2xl) or a bunch of small, matching shirts to make a garment, I never thought about it much til it came time to do my own refashion. Trying to convert my already-fits shirt into another shirt for me was not easy. Details for another post, or you can check out my new SPR refashion 2010 album here. I took pictures at most points in the process. But I do love the fact that I was able to reuse the $10 a yard double knit fabric into a shirt that I will really wear a lot! (The turquoise is leftover scraps).

Ok, well, basically I didn't have enough fabric:


So I sewed some extra on. I mean, really, who is going to check out my sleeve cap that closely? And most of it was for the seam allowance anyway. It's not the most beautiful sleeve cap ever, but it works.


Look closely and you'll see my poorly aligned darts:


Love this shot of the leftovers from the disaster shirt: That's all that remains!


Love seeing the asterisk start to "emerge"


The cat likes how it's turning out (noms now please?)


I just love this shirt. I think the matching aqua collar band really makes it sing. But should I add matching aqua sleeve bands? Leave your vote in the comments. It means I'd have to pick out the zig-zag sleeve hem, then also rip out the remainder of the sleeve lining, then cut some bands and sew them in. But it might be worth it to tie it all together???

I only have til Thursday, midnight to get this together and write an SPR for it.


I can see making this again (from new fabric) and having an exclamation point...an ampersand, etc. Can you picture it???

Ok, let me know what you think about the sleeve bands!