velosews

Minerva make – McCalls 6898

Florals – a classic style choice when Spring comes to Sydney. And Spring is here and so is my latest floral shirt using a lovely floral print and clever buttons from Minerva Crafts using McCalls 6898.

McCalls 6898 shirt and Vogue 1204 jeans
This is an ‘unassuming’ shirt style ie. plain. Although it’s almost Laura Ashley meets military style. 
I love these buttons.

Styling advice for petites usually states using small prints. I’ve seen this advice a lot so when I saw this print at Minerva Crafts in June the colours and print drew me to it.


This fabric washes nicely, irons easily, is lovely to work with and easy to wear all day. This print comes in four colourways and I was really tempted to use the purple colourway but this red/blue/cream combo won out. These colours seemed to reflect the English countryside we were experiencing at the time.


The real reason I wanted to use this fabric was to include it in my business casual gear but to also team this with suits too. Hence using the long sleeves and simply the collar band.


Back to the pattern
This gem has A to D cup sizes so if you’ve been forced to do an FBA on most patterns, this is a handy pattern to have in your stash. I gravitate between B and C sizing so I’ve used C size so that I don’t feel restricted during the day. Yes there a bit of room in this shirt but because it’s for work, I like to wear shirts that don’t cling to me. Personal preference.


Length changes
This was easy but needed some thought. I’ve shortened the sleeve just below the elbow to keep the markings for the cuff.


I’ve taken the length from the lower pieces again to keep the hip shaping. Here’s a link to the petite tech post for this pattern. It’s pretty straightforward (simple) to achieve.
Used french seams and bound the sleeve seams together.

Pleats or gathers?

I chose pleats again. I’m not a ‘gathers gal’ at the best of times but this fabric gathers nicely.


Buttons
These are so cute and they just about match the size of the print. They’re adorable to me. And you really can’t see them with this print.

See how the buttons blend into the print.

How could I resist a sign like this???
The fabric is such a good shirt weight, both this pattern and fabric would lend themselves to a shirt dress. I intend on using this pattern again by extending the hem for a dress.

28 comments

  3. That is a gorgeous shirt Maria. The shape is wonderful. I would never have picked it from the pattern pic – you have a good eye. It is now on my list. Good choice for the fabric.

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  10. I thought the floral looked English – they do some wonderful florals, often small (a lot of English are petite, moi included!) the colours are just gorgeous. Perfect blouse 🙂

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