Sewing: Sewing. And pictures. And figuring out the serger.

Bwaha! I finished the purple shirt. This is the fourth in my herd of Sewing Workshop Liberty Shirts--the cooking coat with the vampire daffodils (not pictured), another in black (pictured machine-dried and unpressed; that's why it looks like a prune with arms), another in red, and, finally, the purple one.

I love this pattern. It goes together without quirks or arguments--well, except for a bit of arguing when easing in the sleeves, but it's rare for set-in sleeves to be perfectly behaved. The instructions walk me through a satisfying mitered shirttail hem and sleeve vents. See?

The final product is comfortable--long and loose enough to allow me to move any way I want, but I still don't feel like I'm wearing a tent.

But I really, really need to get another shirt pattern perfected. You can't wear the same shape in different colors every single day forever, can you? Well, you can, but surely it stops being fun. Eventually. And Himself is not a fan of this pattern, though I could solve much of that problem by extending the front hem to give it the same length as the back.

Speaking of fun, I finished some chicken pajamas:

Well, pajama pants; back when I cut these, somewhere between five and twenty years ago, I only had enough fabric for the pants.

And I'm using the serger! Bwa! Setting up for each new stitch is generally at least half an hour with the manual, but I'm pleased that I'm using them and that they work, beautifully. Overlock to finish the edges of the pieces of the purple shirt. Cover stitch to finish the hem on skirt without double-turning heavy linen:

And overlock-plus-safety-stitch on a skirt in work to go with the purple shirt:

I realize that the excitement value of these for most People Who Sew is likely low, but I'm just all bouncy about it. I've always wanted neat garment interiors, and I've always been too lazy to do Hong Kong finishes, flat-felled seams, or any of the other couture finishes. (Well, I'll do a French seam sometimes, but only on nearly straight lines.) Sewing and finishing the seams on a six-gore skirt in under an hour is just ever so exciting.

So what's next? Work on the almost-but-not-quite-perfect Plain & Simple Princess Shirt pattern? Or continue to build an unending wardrobe of Liberty Shirts?

Photos: Mine.