The Emperor's New Clothes [Emperess?]

Have any of you heard of the Spring Top Sewalong? It's been hosted by Made by Rae for the past few years, and is a delightful place to feel inspired to sew some tops up for oneself.

Plus, I've recently been consumed by a clothing-sewing frenzy [how serendipitous], so I thought I'd enter some of my tops. You can enter up to 4, so I'm entering my 2nd Schoolhouse Tunic for this week's pool [they pull favorites from each week for 4 weeks].

But I also am working diligently on my Banksia top, which I plan to finish in the next couple days and enter next week, thus maximizing my chances of winning a prize. Although, truth be told, I don't think my shirt sewing is going to be winning any prizes, but I do appreciate this opportunity to feel inspired and motivated to keep working on my apparel-making skills. 

So my Banksia progress? Slow and steady wins the race, right?

The yellow arrow on this photo shows where the bust dart is on me at this point. The pink arrow shows where it needs to actually be. I'm basing this on shirts that I already own that fit, not on any significant knowledge of bust darts. This picture is also before I fixed the collar, as it had a ripple on the front. To fix the dart problem, I took the shirt up at the shoulder stitching. The sides are not sewn together yet in this photo. This also helps the placket area not go to my bellybutton.

So at this point the sides are stitched [hello French seams!] and in my attempt to avoid the placket as long as possible [I don't quite understand the instructions...] I'm doing everything else first. So now I'm to the point where I have to decide if I want sleeves or not. I live in Florida, so sleeveless would be heavenly, but if I add sleeves then this shirt is a nice enough material to wear in an office setting.

I also don't know if I should take in the sides more. I know it looks pretty baggy on me, but it's a flowy type fabric, and I was planning on tucking it in a lot, so that will define the waist a bit more.

But OMG let's just bask in the inside of my shirt for a moment. Those French side seams. That single-fold bias tape that I made from some leftover AMH voile as a little surprise pop of color. 

And lest you think I've given up on quilting...simple patchwork just isn't too exciting until I have a finished top. But soon! Like, this week! And I've got plans, baby, big plans, so stick around for quilting galore in the near future :)