Hi! We are excited to share these Bing Shirtigans by Misusu Patterns in our favorite cotton spandex French Terry by Raspberry Creek Fabrics! Thank you to Raspberry Creek Fabric for the fabric for Ansley's Shirtigan and to Misusu Patterns for letting me pattern test.
Lisbon's is a size 122 and Ansley's is a size 152, based on their measurements. They were both betweeen sizes so I sized up. I ended up trimming a tiny bit off the sleeves of both of theirs (before adding the cuff), which is an advantage to being able to try things on during the process!! I ordered extra fabric for Lisbon because both girls are into the color blue lately. I let them pick the accent stripe and the snaps and we all decided together that the purple accent and the white snaps looked the best, much to Ansley's dismay and Lisbon's delight. Ansley's over matching now so this is probably the end of an era. She might agree to pajamas or something but I didn't ask. We all agreed the blue ribbing I've been saving from Jumping June Textiles would be a good match.
The cotton French Terry was a delight to sew, as usual. It's also delicious to wear. I love that it presses well and I can use steam on it! I used a ballpoint needle and my walking foot and it was easy to sew. I always baste the curves on the hem facing and I basted the front placket too because it improves my accuracy. These can be worn all year here! (in the summer after the sun goes down and in the winter as another layer). The blue ribbing has held its shape much better than the white ribbing I found in The Stash.
The biggest change with these Bing Shirtigans is the addition of pockets. Ansley's Cloud Bing Shirtigan has inseam pockets and she loves them! However as she has worn the jacket (nearly constantly), she commented that she has to reach her arms back pretty far to get her hands in the pockets. When the shirtigan is air drying on the drying rack sometimes the pockets hang below the bottom hem. Ansley and Lisbon both really wanted pockets to put their hands in still so I split the front panel of the shirtigan. I found a free pocket template online and printed at 80% for Lisbon's and 90% for Ansley's. I also used a 1/4 inch seam around the pocket bag to give as much space as possible in the pocket itself. I positioned the pockets so the very bottom of the pocket bags would be tacked down by the hem facing. I added interfacing to the front panel pieces where the pockets are attached. It all worked out really well despite the few panic phases when I wasn't sure the pockets were going to work out. Does that happen to you mid project? Oh I also narrowed the width of the sleeve accent pieces because machine doesn't love sewing the really shiny stuff without skipping stitches so it's more like flat piping now. I didn't sew it down to the sleeve itself but I did topstitch the sleeve to keep the flat piping facing the direction I wanted it to face. I also added a little hanging loop and used different fabrics for the neckband bindings.
Lisbon chose to wear her Frozen Dress. It's a Hey June Woodstock Swing Tee lengthened to a maxi dress that I sewed for the Frozen 2 premiere so she calls it her Frozen Dress haha. Ansley paired hers with a pair of stretch jeans with a knit waistband that I'm super jealous of. They are so soft!
How we feel about over a month of Quarantine.
Thanks for stopping by!
