Kibbe sewing five – a shirt this time.

I have the Style Arc Melody pattern. I cannot remember when it came into my house but was quite likely one of their monthly freebies. Is it Kibbe? According to the Kibbe Classic guidelines, blouses should be elegant with soft edges. Not too detailed, no frills, flounces or fuss. Big tick for the Melody!

It is a fairly long tunic with three quarter sleeves and elastic cuffs. I used linen that was a bit too short for the sleeves and the rest of the shirt. I altered them to be short and not as full.

The fabric had a large check pattern, woven not printed. It made for an interesting time in pattern matching. I outdid myself.

Now come a lot of pictures:

Look at the collar and stand.

Stripe matching continued down the centre front.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I even matched up the facing – avoiding any show through of the dark threads.

Stripe matching down the back as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I even matched the left sleeve to the yoke!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Details

Fabric – White linen with a large black check pattern, from Style Arc at the 2018 Frocktails shopping tour.  Sold as a remnant, roughly one metre long, 150cm wide. I can’t remember the cost.

Alterations – shortened the body hem and made them match. Took out the fullness in the sleeve and shortened them too.  I may yet take in the side seams a bit. I’ll see if the linen softens up a bit more. I wasn’t overly happy with the way the linen gathered at the back so changed it to a central box pleat. This also made it possible to match up the stripes to the yoke.

Other stuff – I used some cotton organdy for interfacing rather than fusible interfacing. Time will tell if this was a good idea or not. I attached the yoke using the burrito method, it creates such a lovely enclosed finish.

Conclusions

The linen is a tad scratchy at the moment, I’m guessing it will soften over time. It’s been worn a few times already on our warmer spring days. I can see it in high rotation during summer.

I will make at least one more of these – in a lovely blue linen blend.