Pink Parrots and Ugly Pelicans

Holy Moly! What a weekend!

I’m aching all over but I am busy typing up a summary of the awesome Minerva Crafts meet up event, ready for you later this week.

Now for something quite different.

This is the Berthe shirt from Republique du Chiffon. It’s my third version of the shirt but my first blogged one.

Here are three favourites from other bloggers: Blousette Coquette, Nette, and last but not least Jolies Bobines. 

This pattern is from the book Un été couture and is a boxy sleeveless collared shirt with hi-low hem. I’ve almost nailed the fit now. Just those pesky armholes are still a little tight. I’ve left off the hi-low hem in all my versions.

I used an awesome cotton lawn from Ebay (sold out now but Marie found another colourway in her local fabric shop). I’m not sure if you’ll recognise the print? It’s used on Modcloth’s Tropic the Charts Dress. It’s probably a bit pale for me, but it made me smile!

The body of the shirt does look a bit better in viscose (which my first two versions were made in) but I love how good my collar turned out thanks to the cotton.

The Prym point turner I got from John Lewis was an amazing help to getting a crisp point and a nice round corner on my stand. It’s amazing how you can make do with a chopstick for years and suddenly a bit of carefully shaped plastic can make your sewing so much nicer and stress free!!

So why the ugly pelicans. This fabric has awesome birds BUT in the midst of them there is one ugly as sin pelican.

He makes my skin crawl and makes me think of this Shoebill video clip from Attenborough’s Africa. *SHUDDER!*

Anyway… Along with my beautifully neat collar, this shirt has some of my best topstitching work. It also has hot pink bias binding around the armholes and hem, plus hot pink buttons which both match the lovely pink parrots.

All this makes me very happy.

PS. I’m fairly certain this will be the first and last time you’ll see me in braids hahaha.