The Simplicity competition supplied the pattern, its a nice summer top, it has a boat neck and simple shaping.  I even picked up the rit dye for another euro in another charity shop – all good!  I made the pattern some weeks ago to see what the shaping was like, and I had to alter the pattern a small bit to make use of the shirt.  The back was taken in a bit, and the curve at the top of the pattern was eliminated.  The front dart was changed to a simpler dart.  I pretty much did this while marking out – I marked the front and then traced the bust dart on a piece of paper, and reconfigured it by opening the dart further up – I removed the main pattern under and marked out the new traced dart.  The sleeves were cut from the sleeves, and I left the cuff opening in the same place. I was going to put a button to sew it shut, but I like it as it is.  

Sewing the pattern was pretty straightforward.  I sewed the darts in front and sleeves, and then sewed shoulder seams.  As it was a shirt style sleeve, I sewed it ‘flat’ as opposed to set in, and then finished sleeve seams, side seams and hems.  I decided to use the cuffs for the facing.  The facing is a little bit too heavy, but I will leave it for the moment (I will wear it for a while and may yet try a small stand up collar).  

I have not done shibori before, but always like the look of it.  I tend to prefer wearing regular patterns like plaid so the ‘mokumo’ stitching seemed to have a nice regularity to it, and the more uneven the stitching the more successful the outcome!.  While I was reading up on some shibori history, it seems that shibori comes from the making of old clothes to look new, so a lot of aptness there.

I stitched the shirt at 1cm intervals or so, across the width of the shirt, and the sleeves were stitched in the round.  I gathered them as tight as I could and knotted the ends.   I was trying an ombre effect, but its hardly noticeable (and I also had a few other pieces in the dye pot).  I had the top of the blouse wrapped in a plastic bag to protect it, and rinsed the dye off at the end.  I wasn’t sure what to do next so I undid the threads (shouldn’t have), I think there was still dye in the creases, and some got on the white (which then had to have some bleach on them).  I should have rinsed the dye in hot water and detergent, dry and then loosen the threads – so I will know for the next time.  I was also a bit impatient to see if it worked!  I didn’t take any photos of the process as I was too busy keeping an eye on splashes in the kitchen and have one blurred one taken on my ‘dumb’ phone below.

 I steamed ironed the shibori which should help fix it.  I have to launder it fully yet, so I intend to hand wash the lower half in detergent, dry and steam again, before laundering it fully, and I am unsure how this will work out.  The shibori is a beautiful effect, and I think I would have been equally as happy if I had just left the whole piece dark blue – my original reason for not doing so, was so I could keep the button-up, and the stitching in white may have looked tatt.  As it is, the buttons took some of the colour and I love the effect.  

The other now big plus is, I am going to shibori my ‘teen age’ smock from last weeks post as I think the repair to the small holes will be concealed better!