Love it – Ruffle Shirt

· There is no sizing guide, only finished garment measurements.

· The PDF is a whopping 70 pages. Due to the lack of a sizing guide, I had fingers, toes and eyes crossed that I picked the correct size for me…. and it was fine. I probably would have splashed out for the first time on copyshop printing if I hadn’t been so keen to crack on with it.

· There seems to be a real over-abundance of notches and I was swearing while notching pattern and fabric. But I dutifully made them all, and it was a dream to sew up later on. Every single seam allowance is marked at the start and finish point. Adding a notch maker tool to my wish list.

· I had four metres of fabric for my real shirt. For the toile I used a polycotton sheet, and made a truncated version of the shirt, as I was only concerned with checking the fit across the shoulders, bust and arms.

· I sewed the side seams together as per step 3 of the instructions, but somehow managed to flip one side over, so after I had followed the yoke construction method, I noticed this and had to undo an overlocked side seam. For the real garment I did not sew the side seams in step 3, and instead of following the yoke construction in the instructions, I referred to another pattern to do the burrito method which I prefer.

· I did not interface the sleeve plackets.

· I did not attach the cuffs to sleeves as per the instructions, I prefer to leave the sides open, attached the sleeve head, then close the sleeve and side seam in one, then attach the cuffs. This is to avoid gathering the sleeve and using a million pins, I was able to insert the sleeve head just by going slowly and easing it in.

· The pattern instructs you to ‘sink stitch’ at times, in my ignorance I discovered that this is another term for stitching in the ditch.

· Conclusion: This is a unique pattern, very well-designed, and there are already a couple of other patterns from the designer that I’m coveting. I will be making another one…. @cats.sew.obsessed