I have a handful of favorite patterns that I reuse often. Once the pattern pieces are modified and re-drafted to fit me, it’s fun to focus on variations to these garments—shortening/lengthening sleeves, incorporating color blocking, using different fabrics, adding hand stitching, and the like. These are the times when I feel creative… and why I include a “Make it Again” prompt in my Make Nine challenges.
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| My Berwick St. shirt in linen/cotton with the pattern. |
The Berwick St. Tunic re-make
Back in 2021, I used an eclectic Australian aboriginal print [by M&S Textiles Australia] to make my first Berwick Street Tunic [by The Sewing Workshop]. I wear it often in cooler weather but always thought it would be interesting to forego the gathered lower front panel and make a shorter, shirt variation and extend the button band down the full length of the front. So, here is my Berwick Street shirt, and the sixth finish for Make Nine 2024, fulfilling the Make it Again prompt.
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| My new linen/cotton Berwick Street shirt. |
This Berwick St. shirt is made from a linen/cotton blend from Art Gallery Fabrics’ Inkperfect collection. When I was at Gina’s Bernina, a quilt shop in Knoxville, TN, I couldn’t decide which print to buy, so I purchased yardage of both. I drafted new pattern pieces for the front (to eliminate the gathered lower front panel) and shortened the bodice back about 3.5”
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| Redrafted front pattern piece. |
I curved the bottom hem on the front pieces and matched them to the back pattern piece at the side seams.
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| Berwick Street shirt: color blocked front and curved bottom hem. |
One of my favorite parts of the garment sewing process is choosing buttons from my extensive button collection! (Who doesn’t like mixing and matching and playing with all the buttons in the button box??) Buttons were needed for the sleeve cuffs and the front—and they don’t have to match or be the same!
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| Button options for the sleeve cuffs. |
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| Small white shirt buttons were chosen for the concealed button placket. |
This AGF linen blend has a beautiful drape and was easy to hand sew for the finishing steps—bottom hem, collar facing, cuffs.
To accompany my new shirt, I did a re-make of another favorite pattern—the one-seam Valencia Pants [The Sewing Workshop]—with a nubby, dobby yarn-dyed fabric [by Diamond Textiles] that I purchased on a recent visit to Fletcher’s Homemade in Elizabethton, TN.
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| Valencia Pants with added patch pockets. Pockets are lined with a voile print. |
The pockets are a pattern hack that was added since my first version of these pants. I like to line the pockets with a “surprise” fun fabric like this one—a voile from the Emmy Grace collection [Art Gallery Fabrics]. Using a voile, rayon, or lighter weight cotton fabric for pocket linings reduces the bulk of the pocket and makes it easy to turn. (It’s also a great way to use up smaller pieces of fabric and offcuts from other projects!)
I wore both of these makes at H+H Americas, an industry trade show at the beginning of May. Nothing like a deadline to get something made… and finished!
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| Make Nine 2024 tracker. May 2024. |
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| Make Nine 2024 Tracker: Make it Again prompt. |
