Oh how I love the Chambray!

My love of chambray has grown and why not?  It is amazing against your skin (that is if you use a high-quality fabric), it sews up well, and is well, awesome!  So of course I love it!  This time, I found an amazing RED chambray, after all, who says chambray is only blue?

So this time I decided on a tunic as I love wearing tunics with leggings.  They are SO comfortable and cozy and honestly, sometimes feel like pajamas and who doesn't want to think they have jammies on a work?

So, I rummaged through my stash and since I've been lazy and haven't done a very good job of putting away all my toys (let's face it, for a seamstress, our stashes of patterns, fabric, and supplies are toys!), I quickly found McCall's 6124 as I recently used it for a dark chambray top.  I really liked putting it together so I figured why not!

So an update with my dark chambray shirt....remember those annoying lines at the center back that were there despite my swayback adjustment?

I consulted with a local sewing expert and she took a look at the pics and asked a few questions....

She first noticed that the front is pulling a bit at the hip line as you can see above and asked if I felt like I was tugging the top down as I wore it and the answer was yes!  So, her suggestion was to let the seams out at the waist and hips to give some more room to slide down over my hips.  Well, duh, that made sense so I was all over it and made the adjustments which are sort of hard to see in the photos below.  Wow, what a difference that little bit of ease made!  I had already serged the seams with a four-thread seam so I went to a three thread and with the five seams, that little bit made a big difference!  

So....that leaves us with Chambray tunic in red....what to do?  Well, in my dark chambray I didn't leave enough for ease in the waist and hips, so this time I made sure I had enough, I didn't go with any more than the pattern allowed for, but I didn't take it in at all either.

Oh yes, I and of course I used interfacing from Fashion Sewing Supply.  Love that stuff and I can't say enough good things about it!  The buttons are silver metal ones from Hancock.

So, this time with the this top I took my own advice and put the tunic on before determining where the buttons would be.  I like to start with the one at the largest part of the bust so you don't get gaping. All the other buttons I spaced 4 inches apart.

To attach the collar and stand, I used the same method I used for the dark chambray that I detailed here  This is a great method that gives really excellent results and although I love it, I haven't perfected it yet so no high fives for me yet, that will come with more practice.

I had to add a pocket.  And, the pocket I added is from the Grainline Archer.  Is it really weird to love a pocket pattern?  I've used it on several tops as it is just the right size....

So, of course I had some fitting issues but this time in the upper back.  Argh. It is so hard to try and fix this when you don't have a sewing buddy that can help pin.  So, I took some really bad pics with my phone, checked them out, pinned the shirt, tried it on, took another pic, and with a little more fine tuning, sewed.  This is much better, but still not perfect.  I'd love to find a perfect pattern for my TNT blouse/tunic but I'm not sure this is going to be it.  I'll keep searching....

So, thanks for reading!  So, what are you sewing up for fall?  For now, off to play because a very special little man is here to visit!

Sue :)