Ottobre 03/2008-8 - the "Peasant" shirt

I'm not sure why Otto calls this one the "Peasant" shirt.  I think it's pretty classy!

Cute, eh?  I hope it still fits him at Easter!  It's a little big right now, so I think I got the size right.  I guess we'll see how fast he grows.

The pattern is #8 from the 03/2008 issue of Ottobre.  It isn't an exact match for Logan's shirt, and I thought about altering it to make them identical, but I decided that would be a little too matchy-matchy.  I'd rather they just coordinated.  There are a few things that I wish I had transferred though.  This shirt was much simplified, which made it easy to sew, but I think it lacks a bit.  There is no back yoke or button bands and the hem is straight rather than a more traditional shirt tail hem.

The details I did like were the cuff plackets and the bias cut pockets with flaps.  I kinda wish I had cut the flaps on the bias, but they are still cute on grain.  The cuff plackets were done a little differently in the pattern, and I have to say, I wasn't a fan.  The pattern called for the underlap to just be narrow hemmed.

As you can see, I bound it in a more traditional way.  In fact, I just used the directions from Logan's shirt.  Overall, I am happy with the shirt, since it was quite easy, but if I make it again, I think I'll draft a yoke and front bands.  I just prefer the look that way.
I got a lot of comments about the snap setter I used on the last shirt, so I thought I'd tell you about it.

Here it is!  Crazy simple - just 3 pieces of plastic.  For such a useful tool, I thought it was really inexpensive.  At SewBaby, where I got mine, they are only 9 dollars, and adapters for other sizes are 3.50.

Here is how it works.  You start by putting the prong side of the snap into a depression on the base of the tool.  Put your fabric in place on the snap.  I found it helped to push the prongs into the fabric a little, especially if there were multiple layers. Then you place the second piece of the tool which holds your fabric in place and aligns the snap to the base.  You drop the appropriate snap into the hole, then put on the cover, and hammer the snap together.  The cover has a circle that shows you where to hit.  The instructions that came with the snap setter were great.  The only thing that I found was that with my little girlie hammer (and girlie arms) I had to hit between 6-8 times to get the snap to really hold together.  The instructions only say 2.
I do have a few words of caution.

The first is to be sure that you protect the surface that you are pounding your snaps on.  This is my hubby's workbench, so I didn't bother, and you can see the little circles created by the press.  Just putting a magazine or the yellow pages underneath is sufficient.

Second, if you are using pearl snaps, be sure to get the correct adapter.  For the first shirt, it wasn't a problem, but after a while, I started cracking snaps.  I'll be ordering the adapter before I put the snaps on Myra's dress.
Overall, I think this is an awesome too, and I know I'll be using it a ton!

Gadget love

I'm working hard on my Easter dress, McCall's 6024.  I'm making View B, which is the one with short flouncy sleeves and bias bound flounces.  I hate hemming - especially narrow hems on silky polyester, so I knew that bias bound view was the way to go for me!  And it gave me a chance to use one of my favorite gadgets - my binding foot!

Here she is in action.  Basically, the foot takes your bias tape, wraps it around your fabric and perfectly edgestitches it.  Every time.  All 6 yards (!) of it.

Isn't that nice?  It looks exactly the same on the back, which is my favorite part.  Since the foot itself folds the tape, the wrong side doesn't have that hanging over bit, but you don't have to worry about missing the edge on the wrong side either.  This was particularly critical for this project, since both wrong and right sides show on the flounces.

Here's a purty pile of freshly bound flounce.  The other big bonus of the binding foot - it only took me about 45 minutes to do all of this binding, and it seriously was about 6 1/2 yards worth.  If I had done that by hand, it would have taken days!  I love gadgets!!