A Sunny Recital Shirt

Liesl & Co Patterns are a new-to-me pattern company but I’m not sure why was as their designs are just beautiful. They have a few different shirt patterns but the Recital Shirt appealed to me straight away. It has two versions: one with a pleated tuxedo style front and the second has a very distinctive collar with a super cute ruffle trim. I chose the ruffle collar version as I could see this yellow floral cotton fabric working so well as a pretty frill and it looked a bit more casual than the tuxedo style version.

One of the (many) excellent things about this pattern is that is comes in different cup sizes (as do quite a few of their patterns). This really is a godsend when fitting as you’re much less likely to have to do a small or large bust adjustment! Win eh? So, based on my measurements I fit pretty well into a size 2. If anything it was going to be a teeny bit roomy at the bust but I didn’t mind this so much as I knew I could always take it in a little if need be. One thing I did notice about the bodice pattern pieces though were how long they were. Comparing them to the length of one of my favourite shirts that I already owned, I decided to shorten the bodice pieces by 2 inches (I’m just shy of 5′ 2″). This was the only change I made to the pattern pieces as I thought I could always tweak the side seams if they ended up a little big or small.

The instructions for this pattern are also absolutely brilliant. I have made a full shirt before with collar, sleeve plackets and cuffs and muddled through with ok-ish instructions, but these are in a league of their own! They’re fantastic! All the steps are super detailed and the drawings (not photos) are so clear as to what goes where. There was a little bit of head-scratching at the points were the ends of the collar and cuffs are finished but I just read the instructions really carefully and it made sense when I thought it through. I really think Liesl & Co have nailed the instructions for this pattern, and I don’t believe that’s just because I’ve got a bit of experience from sewing for a few years now! A confident beginner could definitely have a go at this pattern.

To continue reading about my Recital Shirt and to see lots more photos, head over to my blog here:

https://thatssewpeachy.wordpress.com/2020/02/20/a-sunny-recital-shirt-felicity-fabric-make/

Happy sewing,

Holly x