Sewing the Perkins shirt (Ensemble Patterns): look at me in the eyes!
I present you today the Perkins shirt (and dress) from Ensemble Patterns, while I rarely wear shirts … but I think I was shamefully influenced and lured into shirt making by Mzel Coco and the girlz from @mixandsew.
And then, the Perkins is the ideal shirt to let the air flows during our more and more hot summers …
I feel the 90s vibe and Parker Lewis go through me … brrrrr!
ITEM | SHOP | QUANTITY | PRICE |
Chemise Perkins | Ensemble Patterns | 1 | 8,60 € |
Poplin Eyes | Mamzelle Fourmi | 1,5 m | 22,20 € |
Buttons | Market haberdashery | 5 | 2 € |
Thread | Stock | 0 | 0 € |
Total | 32,80 € |
Perkins shirt and dress pattern
In fact, I knew this pattern by Ensemble Patterns since its release last year but I was not really interested at the time. Shirts are not really part of my dress vocabulary … And then, finally, I had the urgent need to sew it 2-3 weeks ago.
So I bought and downloaded the pattern, and ordered 2 cotton coupons – taking advantage of the sales – at Mamzelle Fourmi. Yeah, because as long as I was sewing it, I wanted two.
The Perkins shirt is a loose shirt, with short raglan sleeves with lots and lots of different options. It’s so nice to be able to pick and choose and make several different versions.
- 4 lengths: cropped, normal, tunic or dress
- with or without gathers in the front and back,
- visible button placket or invisible,
- 2 types of collar: shirt collar or officer
- back collar with or without slit + bow
Before I began to sew, I hesitated to death between all the lengths believing wrongly that I had enough fabric to choose any length I please. But I’ll detail that further on. In the end, I made the normal shirt length that I shortened to the cropped length.
The back is longer than the front and has a yoke.
A big plus of this pattern too are the inside’s perfect finishes. Not a visible seam thanks to the famous “burrito” method for the back yoke and sleeves, and the French seams for the sides and sleeves.
But the down side is precisely that the sleeves are doubled because of the no-visible-seam construction … for the summer, it’s not so nice.
In addition, having to cut 4 times the sleeves can be misleading. On my picture, you can see my cutting layout at the beginning when I thought I had enough fabric for the dress. But when you cut 4 times the sleeves, 1.5 m is just enough for the shirt or possibly the bit short tunic. Be careful!
And finally, I find also that the sleeves get a bit stiffer with that double layering.
Well, I’m fine, I can still move my arms o/ and the shirt is still airy!
Otherwise, I sewed one of the proposed patch pockets. The pattern also offers seam pockets for the tunic & dress versions.
Sewing the Perkins shirt
The sewing of my very first shirt (very first time) went well. In truth, the button placket is easy. The real difficulty lies in the collar but with very clear overall and well illustrated explanations (even for the “burrito” steps), it went like clockwork.
The burrito method is pushed quite far … until you end up with a big triangular cushion … but don’t panic, it’s normal;)
And I beg you to notice how the buttons are exactly at the level of the pupils of the eyes and the same color! There are no pattern matching, but there is that at least …
Well, in fact, by avoiding the fitted sleeves (“classic” sleeves sewn on the shoulder) and the cuff plackets that are usually found on the long shirt sleeves cuffs, this pattern manages to avoid at least 2 of the main complexities in shirt sewing. A good pattern to get started!
I still had some problems while making my Eyes shirt.
First of all, sewing the French seams in some places was a bit hairy because of the 4 layers and the unique 1 centimeter of seam value.
Also, I didn’t understand the steps for the hem with a 1st fold at 3 mm (arg!) then a seam in the middle of the seam value (1.5 mm? Uh … (? _?) ) then 2nd fold at 0.5 mm (re-arg) … almost infeasible on the thicknesses of the button plackets and the English seams on the sides … well, if I correctly understood the explanation anyway. ¯ _ (-_-) _ / ¯
Finally, I ended up doing it my way!
Last words on my Perkins shirt
Oh well, I really like my shirt! The fabric is great, it slams I think. I had seen him at an fellow instagramer (but who?) several months ago. She was in love. I was doubtful. She was right !
I have my 2nd version waiting nicely on my ironing board. The fabric will be a thin cotton this time, which should allow me to do the version with the gathers. By cons, I’m still looking for ways to have beautiful interior finishes without double layered sleeves. And maybe also shorter sleeves.
You can tell me what you think, leave me your comments, I love it
* a title that people under 30 can not understand ^ _ ^