Kensington Gardens Shirt - Terminado!/Finished!

Hey look what I finally finished!
Love wearing it too. Great over jeans and fitted trousers.I have not completed a lot of sewing recently, but I have been making a concerted effort to get more sewing time in.  Because I just missed time at the machine, as well as finishing and enjoying new garments. 

I call it my Kensington Gardens Shirt in honor of that wonderful park in London, where you find the Peter Pan statue. The contrast fabric is William Morris Strawberry Thief. The green material is also Liberty of London, but I don’t know what design it is, or if it’s one of the old classics like the Strawberry Thief.

I had this shirt cut out probably two years ago  - from my No. 1 Lady's Detective Agency pattern (much altered B5526). After cutting it out, I tucked it away and more or less forgot about it.  

A few months back, I dug it out because - hey I can't let Liberty of London fabric go to waste! I have been sewing it off and on for something like two or three months. Just tiny snips of time. Finally I pushed myself to put in blocks of time, and finally it is done. Hooray!

This project has really reminded me you have to have confidence about resolving sewing challenges - I had more than one.

I had an awful lot of problems with things like laying the button holes out iregulalrly (yup I measured - but then I did something funny....) - so I added more buttons in between, sewed the right strip on top of the left, and now all the buttons are decorative. I pull it over my head to put it on, and that works just fine. 

I really disliked this shirt for a while. I altered a lot of aspects of the pattern style, and it was cut too big and loose for the floaty fabric-  but now I like it a lot. Isn't that always amazing when a project goes from potential wadder to wardrobe enhancer? I just have to be careful not to wear it over full pants because of the loose cut. 

Part of my other challenges were... the Liberty of London Tanna Lawn material is very fluid so I added quilt batting to the collar (used the collar band only) and the part down along the front facing because even with interfacing it was limp. Then I did some very simple machine straight stitch quilting. 

At one point I considered taking some waist tucks, which looked like they'd work out as well - like I did on the purple check Kaufaman gingham plus Liberty of London Mauverina print contrasts using this same shirt pattern about 2.5 years ago.  But I started to get used to the looseness, and am now happy with it. Can always take those tucks down the road if I change my mind.

Oh - I also changed the cuffs from the original under elbow cuff with placket , to a simple band of the Strawberry Thief that I sewed in print side upside down, then seamed along either (pressed) edge, then ran wide elastic in and turned up. After that I simply sewed the rest of the underarm seam. (I have a feeling I did something more permanent to make that cuff stay in place.....) I always push my shirt sleeves up, so 3/4 sleeves are better for me. And these cuffs hit me just right, a touch below the elbow, or I can push the elastic up just above the elbow,  if I'm in the mood.

Collar and front band are stabilized with both quilt batting and fusible interfacing
How about that pin?
Who knows how long that's been floating around in my costume jewelry collection.
It really helps make the shirt.

Garment Quilting - Inner/Under Layers - Kensington Gardens Shirt - Technicos

Last time I posted about how I worked on the quilting for my Kensington Gardens shirt - using both hand basting and machine sewing.

I chose to quilt for structuring/embellishing the front of this shirt because of the very fluid nature of the Liberty of London Tanna Lawn fabric.

For structuring beneath the quilting I first fused a light weight interfacing onto the inner side of the interfacing - that's the purple/blue/green Strawberry thief print.

I then added a light weight fusible batting on the main body of the fabric - the green and cream floral print.

I use a half width of packaged seam binding tape to give a neat finish to my interior edges. I'll do the same thing with the hem. Usually one package - with the full length sliced down the middle - is enough for the entire interior. It goes all the way around the front facing, collar facing and all along the hem. The bias nature of the tape works well around curves. When I get to a point, I can fold a point, and because I've sliced the tape in half, there's not to much fabric. I get a pretty crisp hem that way.

Front Quilting - Kensington Gardens Shirt - Technicos

I'm calling this my Kensington Gardens Shirt, because the fabric came from London. I love visiting Kensington Gardens and always return to see the Peter Pan Statue. The trim is William Morris Strawberry Thief. Unfortunately I didn't note the name the green print.

I love floaty, fluid Tanna Lawn fabric from Liberty of London, but in a weighty shirt,  like my tried and true No. 1 Ladie's Detective Agency pattern, it means that the material drags in the front in the facing and edge of collar band. So I've been quilting the mandarin collar and the front interfacing to give them some structure.

I also edge-stitched the front inner edge with a leaf stitch on top of a blanket stitch. The extra layers of thread are giving it more stability.

Glad I machine basted initially, because I had problems with the fabric pulling funny. So I used my seam ripper to remove those stitches, hand basted and then machine stitched again to get a better lay down of this quilted area. I also stretched a little bit by hand and sewed very slowly. I used a really long machine stitch for the quilting because of all the layers.

Another thing that helped when I tried again was using my teflon sewing machine foot, instead of my Viking 'B' foot (for heavier fabric). The teflon skates over the surface a lot better and doesn't seem to pull. I still have to go slowly and stretch a little as I go.

You'll notice I used masking tape to get straight lines when I hand basted. Originally I used posit tape, but it was not adhesive enough. Also when I tried leaving the masking tape in place and machine stitching along the edge, the stickum on the tape somehow got in there. So I now vote masking tape for hand basting/quilting only.

* * *

Next time I'll show a bit about the under layers 

Kensington Gardens Shirt: Stitching on the Straight and Narrow - Tip for Sewing slippery fabric

Oh,  my sister,

Keep on the Straight, the Straight and Narrow.

Keep on the Straight Side with My Lord!*

Sewing this Liberty Tanna Lawn is a somewhat slippery proposition. In addition to stitching through tissue paper, I find that strips of narrow post-it tape (in addition to pins), help me to guide my machine needle along a straight line.

~ ~ ~

Have you heard my Laurel Loves London audio/podcast, where I shared my visit to Liberty - The Home of Tanna Lawn?

* Though I enjoy singing Gospel style music, I don't actually know any gospel songs that incorporate the straight and narrow theme, so like any good singer, I created my own.