White Eyelet Peasant Shirt

October 2012

Pattern: New Look 6892, size 10 with modifications.  Made view A.

Fabric: white eyelet with scalloped edge (~2-3/4 yds) See my mistake on my original fabric calculations here.

Notions: 1/4″ inch elastic for neckline and sleeves (~1-1/2 yds), 1 package white single-fold bias tape

Pattern Alterations: I lengthened the bodice 2″.  Since I was using an eyelet with a scalloped edge, I just let the scallop be the edge and did not do the narrow hemming that the pattern called for on the bottom of the shirt and sleeves.

Summary:  I love that this pattern is so easy to put together.  I have made this pattern before for my daughter and she really enjoys wearing it, so I decided to make a long-sleeved version. The last time I made this shirt I made a size 12 based on bust measurements, but the shirt came out fairly large.  This time I decided to make a size 10 in hopes that the shirt wouldn’t be so big.  The pattern indicates that there will be 11″ of ease across the bust so I figured that there should be plenty of extra ease even if I made a size smaller.

If you want to make it like I did using a scalloped edge (or border print), you will need to lay your pattern pieces cross grain instead of on the grain as the pattern shows.  Before you buy the fabric, be sure to calculate how much extra fabric you will need because of turning the pieces 90 degrees!

Thoughts on eyelet:  The eyelet also doesn’t have as much drape as the previous shirt – maybe because it’s embroidered all over.  I’m glad we went with a size 10 because I think the extra fabric of a size 12 would have looked very stiff.  I was concerned about the seams, so I used the serger with a 4-thread overlock stitch with a stitch length of 2 and differential set to N.

Finally, when I laid out the sleeve piece on the eyelet I noticed that the sleeve is supposed to be curved along the bottom edge – I guess so that it will look right when you sew the arm seam.  Since I was using the scallop edge as the bottom of the sleeve, I couldn’t get a curve.  See it in this picture?  I opted to line up the seam edges at the edge of the scallop and just hope for the best.

Final Thoughts: Love this shirt!  I think next time I’ll go back to a size 12 if the fabric has plenty of drape; the armholes seem a bit tight on this size 10.