Bow Back Shirt
Ok, so I saw a lot of variations in this shirt, and I really liked the look of it, so I thought I would wing it and try to make one. I have had a little experience with patterns and I like them, but sometimes I just want to throw something together and see how it goes. I had fun with this shirt, but I also made some mistakes. And if you were paying attention from my first post, I make mistakes. But making mistakes is ok if you learn from them, which I did/do.
Mistake #1: The color
I don't dislike the color, I just dislike that color on me. I have another flowy burgundy polyester fabric, so I might make the Bow Back Shirt #2 with it. I am fair skinned and this was a camel colored (see through) polyester fabric; not a good combo. Hence the black trim... Which brings us to Mistake #2.
I wanted black trim and a black bow from the minute I saw this shirt. The first version I saw was a black shirt with sleeves. The trim, along with the bow, was an animal print. I'm not giantly into animal print, so to speak. I mean, I like it here and there, but not a big fan. Anywho, the problem with the trim was that I used a bias tape... it is kind of stiff for the look I was going for. This is completely fixable, of course. I might fix it, but it might work. We'll see...
Mistake #3: The bow
I should have assembled this before putting it on the shirt... Nuff said.
Mistake #4: The bow... Again
I am not happy with the assemblage of the bow itself. This might or might not have to do with the lack of pre-assembling. The first example of this shirt that I saw looked like the bow was just pinned near the top and then kind of left to hang, looking vey bow-y. I liked that a lot when I tacked mine on. But when I went to gather the tails into a 'bow', it just didn't seem to sit right. Again, completely fixable. The reason I assembled the bow this way was because that is how the original one looked to me. Observe...
To me, it almost looks like they tacked the bow on at the tops of the bow, gathered it in the middle with another strip of fabric, and then gathered the tails up and in, kind of a faux bow. When I first made my bow, I made an actual bow... Make two rabbit ears, yadda yadda yadda. But it just didn't look right, if I was to make the shirt I wanted. And again, we have another issue with the bow...
Mistake #5: The bow... yet again
I made the bow completely backwards. I kind of had a crunch for time and wanted to finish this to possibly wear to work, but everything was not going according to plan, so I haven't worn it yet. But in my hurry, I made the bow completely inside out. It was a lovely black satin, but it was a very unravely fabric by the time I was done fiddling with it. Completely my fault, not the fabric. Oddly enough, I actually have a bottle of that stop ravel stuff, but I never think to use it. Anywho, I stitched it up around the sides and turned it inside out to hide the stitches... and then i noticed that it was inside out. Another fixable mistake, but it now has kind of a matte-ish shine, which is not entirely a bad thing. So I might leave it.
I do like the overall end results of this shirt. I took 1 yard of the khaki polyester fabric (which was on sale for $1.48 a yard and is slightly stretchy) and folded it width-wise. then I cut a small head hole and stuck it over my dress form, Matilda. Then I just cut how I thought I wanted the neck to lay in the front and back. I took the sides and pinned them close to Matilda and then sewed along the sides for maybe 2 inches, creating arm holes and side seams. It now was more fitted, but while still having a very wing like shape to it. I very much like that about it! So I will attempt it again, with a different colored fabric.
Mistake #1: The color
I don't dislike the color, I just dislike that color on me. I have another flowy burgundy polyester fabric, so I might make the Bow Back Shirt #2 with it. I am fair skinned and this was a camel colored (see through) polyester fabric; not a good combo. Hence the black trim... Which brings us to Mistake #2.
I wanted black trim and a black bow from the minute I saw this shirt. The first version I saw was a black shirt with sleeves. The trim, along with the bow, was an animal print. I'm not giantly into animal print, so to speak. I mean, I like it here and there, but not a big fan. Anywho, the problem with the trim was that I used a bias tape... it is kind of stiff for the look I was going for. This is completely fixable, of course. I might fix it, but it might work. We'll see...
Mistake #3: The bow
I should have assembled this before putting it on the shirt... Nuff said.
Mistake #4: The bow... Again
I am not happy with the assemblage of the bow itself. This might or might not have to do with the lack of pre-assembling. The first example of this shirt that I saw looked like the bow was just pinned near the top and then kind of left to hang, looking vey bow-y. I liked that a lot when I tacked mine on. But when I went to gather the tails into a 'bow', it just didn't seem to sit right. Again, completely fixable. The reason I assembled the bow this way was because that is how the original one looked to me. Observe...
To me, it almost looks like they tacked the bow on at the tops of the bow, gathered it in the middle with another strip of fabric, and then gathered the tails up and in, kind of a faux bow. When I first made my bow, I made an actual bow... Make two rabbit ears, yadda yadda yadda. But it just didn't look right, if I was to make the shirt I wanted. And again, we have another issue with the bow...
Mistake #5: The bow... yet again
I made the bow completely backwards. I kind of had a crunch for time and wanted to finish this to possibly wear to work, but everything was not going according to plan, so I haven't worn it yet. But in my hurry, I made the bow completely inside out. It was a lovely black satin, but it was a very unravely fabric by the time I was done fiddling with it. Completely my fault, not the fabric. Oddly enough, I actually have a bottle of that stop ravel stuff, but I never think to use it. Anywho, I stitched it up around the sides and turned it inside out to hide the stitches... and then i noticed that it was inside out. Another fixable mistake, but it now has kind of a matte-ish shine, which is not entirely a bad thing. So I might leave it.
I do like the overall end results of this shirt. I took 1 yard of the khaki polyester fabric (which was on sale for $1.48 a yard and is slightly stretchy) and folded it width-wise. then I cut a small head hole and stuck it over my dress form, Matilda. Then I just cut how I thought I wanted the neck to lay in the front and back. I took the sides and pinned them close to Matilda and then sewed along the sides for maybe 2 inches, creating arm holes and side seams. It now was more fitted, but while still having a very wing like shape to it. I very much like that about it! So I will attempt it again, with a different colored fabric.
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