Another Hadley

So I went stash-diving for fabric to make the Grainline Archer shirt and came across this cotton border print from Gail K in Atlanta. It's been languishing in stash long enough now to be considered free. That's how it works. I've had it long enough to forget how much I paid for it, so it's free.

I would have used this for the Archer shirt but, alas, not enough fabric. That's another reason why I like Grainline's Hadley shirt. And the Hadley is really a nice pattern for a border print. I did not have enough to cut both sleeves from the white border, so one is solid black. As is often the case, this is actually better than it would have been if I'd had enough fabric.

As I mentioned in my previous post, this is a simple make so it should have gone smoothly. And it did with just one or two glitches.

The wrong side of this fabric is not noticeable until you attach the shoulders using French seams, and finish the neckline with self-fabric bias binding. Then it's real noticeable.

Also I found it relatively easy to sew the hem facing up-side-down. I swear, I'm going to go back and add some notches to the top of the facing so I don't fight that battle again.

Here's something I missed on Hadley #1: you use only the outer two notches when forming the inverted pleat in back. I am guessing I would have noticed that sooner if I had used the provided facings. This pleat is deeper and prettier, I think. To help it keep its shape, I stitched the inside fold of the pleat about 1/8" from the fold.

I made the same changes to this Hadley as the previous - bias binding for finishing the neckline and sleeve hems, cut both front and back on the fold, and I shortened the sleeves by 2" (!).

I think I like this Hadley even better than the first one, maybe because of this fabric. It's a cotton lawn and a tad sheer so I may need a cami underneath.

Next up: Grainline's Archer shirt. I have it cut out already.