Sunday, July 27, 2014

Myrtle Mania

I've been quite happy with Colette's recent patterns for knits, Mabel and Moneta, so I downloaded the latest, Myrtle, right away. And then our printer ran out of ink and we couldn't find replacement cartridges. Wah waaaah.  But there is a happy ending!


Fast forward a couple weeks and I finally got the pattern printed up, taped together and ready to roll! I decided to go the woven route after receiving an order from Fabric.com chock full of rayon challis (my new favorite fabric after making and wearing my lovely, flowy Summer Jazz dress).  They had a sale and I may have gone a little crazy... for my first Myrtle I went with this navy fabric printed with various blue and green roses (seems to be sold out). I'm not sure roses are my bag, but the colors totally are... plus they're kinda in keeping with Colette's whole vintagey-modern style, no?


I was gonna make Myrtle with a speckled rayon challis I had also ordered, but when poking around on the internet scoping out the other Myrtles, I saw that Leslie at Stitchin' in my Kitchen has already done exactly that and it looked awesome.  That might be my next Myrtle... imitation/flattery, etc.



Details:
- I went with View 1, the longer length with no shoulder tabs
- Size L graded to XL at the hips, just in case (although that was probably unnecessary)
- Cut the back skirt on the fold to eliminate the seam (not sure why that wasn't on the fold in the first place...to save fabric?)
- My back-of-the-neck bias tape didn't end up quite reaching into the shoulder seams... next time I'll make it extend past the edges and then trim afterwards
- After sewing the front and back together, I  ended up with some weirdness at the armpits: tiny points sticking out of the side seams. It's mostly unnoticeable with the printed fabric and because of the location, but I'm sure I screwed something up...
- I fed the elastic through after sewing the waist seam up so I didn't have to stretch as I went

Verdict:
I love it!!  The fit is great for me. The cowl hangs beautifully. I love how comfy the elastic waist is, but don't think it looks to elastic-y, if ya know what I mean. The skirt is a great length and width. Awesome, cute, comfortable.  I think it will look equally good with flip flops on the weekend as it will with heels and a cardigan or blazer.  I will definitely make another one before too long... I dig the shirt version over at Nicole at Home, too!

Have you made Myrtle yet?  Planning on it?