Nautical Royalty

I did it!! I managed to sew an outfit in two days and write a blog post for it!

I decided I wouldn't enter the indie royalty contest as I was away camping for the first five days of the competition and working Thursday and Friday so unlikely that I would get enough spare time to sew two things.
I decided, however, that if I was going to enter I would make a nautical theme outfit to go with my bowline sweatshirt.

https://flic.kr/p/W13Stx

I already had my bowline sweater finished for the new to me competition:

I bought the Cali Faye Collection Valley blouse as part of the Sew my style sewalong organised by bluebird fabrics.
The fabric is from fabricland in Bournemouth; it's a lightweight off white cotton with shiny dots.

I managed to get the blouse sewn in an evening which motivated me to think I could make the shorts on Sunday afternoon and enter this final contest.

The top has rouched sections under the yoke and on the sleeve caps. The front of the yoke is fully lined and the back yoke has a small facing.
The front has a keyhole finish and has a fake button to hold it together.

The button holes on the sleeves almost finished me off!! My new sewing machine, a beautiful janome dks100 has a choice of buttonholes and I decided to use the keyhole shaped one. I practiced on some spare fabric and it worked perfectly but when I tried it on the cuff it kept going wrong!! It should self measure when to stop sewing and it kept making one side correct but then finish the other side shorter! It meant I had to unpick the whole buttonhole before going again and only worked third time lucky on both cuffs.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/152506214@N05/shares/3hdt48

The shorts are from Simple Sew Shannon collection and has the option for trousers, a top and a dress.
I decided to cover my own buttons which I have never done before. I have added a little step by step guide in the photo below for anyone else unsure of how to do it.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/152506214@N05/shares/pAU8H1

The fabric choice was a bit of a challenge as there was no right side/ wrong side. At one point I sewed the front and back together inside out and only noticed because of the darts.

https://flic.kr/p/W1o3no

I decided to add just three buttons to the shorts as I was worried they were starting to look a bit like Mickey Mouse shorts!!

https://flic.kr/p/W1nQi3

https://flic.kr/p/X2iruu

https://flic.kr/p/Xh1yJ6

If you liked this post then check out my blog at craftysewandsewindorset