If you’ve been a reader of this blog for any amount of time you will know that I’m a huge fan of Oliver + S patterns. I truly give these patterns all the credit for teaching me so much about sewing and pattern construction. I’ve sewn quite a few independent and boutique patterns over the years and I always come back to O+S because it’s almost always a no fail pattern.
I’ve made the coordinating badminton skort a few times and love how easily it comes together. It lends itself to so many easy adaptations and alterations, but I hadn’t had a chance to put the shirt together until this summer.
The bird fabric is an organic by Birch and the grey trim fabric is from the Ed Emberly collection. Both were lovely to work with and I love how they came together.
The little tie on the front was actually some trim I ordered years ago from the Netherlands and never used it for what I had originally intended. I think it was honestly the perfect way to top off this little shirt!
This is a great pattern and pretty easy to put together. It came together in an afternoon and the hardest part were the “sleeves”. The original pattern has a ruffle on the shoulders and my chick is very anti-ruffle so we opted to leave that part off. While it did save a step, had I realized we weren’t going to add the ruffle I would have probably altered how I constructed that shoulder seam a little better. I also added some length to the bottom of the shirt.
The thing I love about Oliver + S is that no matter what you sew, you end up with a garment that 1. doesn’t necessarily look like your mom made it (you know what I mean) and 2. you have a garment that looks so complicated to construct, but yet it really isn’t.
I would say this is a great pattern for an advanced beginner.