Victory Patterns Simone, a lot of torn out stitches..

I've been working on the Simone pattern from Victory Patterns for a while now.

When I was in New York I bought some of this cotton at Purl Soho, they had it in two colours and I thought it would make a wonderful Simone shirt. But after cutting out all the pieces and sewing the front part (with the pleats) to the placket it looked horrible! The cotton is way too stiff for this kind of shirt, which needs some drape. Off course I forgot to take pictures, as I was rushing to get my seam ripper and took it apart again.

Finally!

Then I found some drapey silk in my stash which I was saving for the lining of Vogue 1207 after seeing Julia Bobbin's wonderful version. Then I messed up the pleating on the front, since I coudn't really figure out how it was supposed to be folded. I only noticed this after sewing the front piece to the placket  (again!). The bust darts were also very different in position, one ending 3 cm higher than the other..

First I tried to solve the bust dart issue by lengthening it, off course this didn't work and it looked quite sad. So after some deliberation (asking my boyfriend and sister for their opinion) I decided to cut out another front piece and eliminate the pleats all together.

No pleats!

I just retraced the front piece so that it fitted around the placket and then sewed it together. Much better!

I inserted an invisible zipper and used the wrong side of the silk so that it is less shiny.

But now I had another little issue, since the cotton is quite stiff and since I also interfaced it (like the instructions tell you to) I don't like the way the placket falls. If it moves outwards you get this weird looking effect. I hope it won't be too obvious when I'm wearing it (though my grandma did notice it, but she has the professional-seamstress eye)

The tab has the tendency to stick outwards..

The bust is a bit tight and I can't get the neck to close like it's supposed too, so for my next Victory Patterns make (which I've already started working on) I cut out a size 6 instead of a 4. Let's see what happens then!

Some weird gaping

Overall this is not a super succesful make, but it did teach me some things about drape and stiffness of fabric. I hope that I have enough left over cotton to make a fitted dress, which I think will work much better drape-wise.

I think I prefer to wear it tucked into something,
what do you think? 

Stashbusting count: 1.5/15 (just 0.5 for the silk)