VICTORY PATTERNS ROXANNE : LIBERTY GROWING FONDER
Victory Patterns : Roxanne Top
Liberty of London : Growing Fonder Tana Lawn Cotton
We’re halfway through May and if you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know that I have been doing the Me Made May challenge for this month. Me Made May is an opportunity for people who knit or stitch handmade clothing to celebrate their wardrobe. I am NOT sewing a new garment everyday! I’m using this opportunity to celebrate my years of building my handmade wardrobe. I’m also taking the opportunity to document newer garments that I’ve never really shared and to re-document some old favourites. I’m loving looking into my closet each morning with fresh eyes and picking an outfit to share with you.
This is my second Roxanne top. I just loved the other version and wanted to try the second option with sleeves and the tie. I decided to use the beautiful Liberty of London Growing Fonder Print. I love the detail of this pattern and the fine lines. If you look closely you will also see there are metallic accents here and there. It’s just gorgeous. I decided to do some extreme pattern matching for this tunic. When I was sewing this, I was also watching the Great British Sewing Bee and imagined Patrick Grant judging my work. He’s a tough cookie, but he would appreciate these fine details. This really inspired me to push myself! I was very careful to centre the pattern on the front , the back and also each of the sleeves. I cut each sleeve separately and made sure the pattern was identical on each one. I also made sure that the pattern lined up as you go around the top from front to sleeve to back. To be extra extreme, on the back, I carefully calculated so that the pattern matched up in the centre from the back yoke to the back bodice, ACROSS THE SEAM! No one will ever know, but even the facing on the front neckline perfectly matched the piece it was sewn to. This took a fair bit of time, but I really enjoyed the challenge.
The one little snag I ran into was just a result of me not fully reading the pattern. When you sew in the sleeves for this, you use a smaller seam allowance of 3/8″ rather than the 5/8″ that you use for the rest of the pattern. When I figured this out, it really made a difference on how the sleeves fit!
I love the drama of this pattern! When you wear it, the way the back flows out and the way the back hem curves down just feels so fancy and fun!
I’m collecting all my Me Made May photos here and I’ll be posting lots of new garments for the rest of the month!
5 comments
not many people could pull off a dramatic, metallic peacock tunic, yet you look classy and sophisticated (as usual). i just love all the work you put in to matching your seams and how you saw it as a challenge rather than a chore. and, making the insides beautiful is a big part of what makes self sewing rewarding. i could never get away with wearing this shirt, but i love it on you!
Wow – that’s a really beautiful piece. I’ve looked at that pattern a few times but could not see past the styling on the envelope to where it could suit me. Now I can. And lovely matching too!!
Any tips on how you so precisely matched the print? I am working on a Portfolio tunic using Liberty Castille. Been quite a challenge trying to figure out how to place the print well & keep things matched up. (Being in the US, I can’t watch many of the GBSB episodes.)
Oh wow this is lovely! And thank goodness I came across your post! I just made this version of the Roxanne myself (you can see it on my blog) and the only trouble I had was the fit across what I thought was the high bust. But I’ve just figured out my stupid mistake thanks to you! I sewed the sleeves at 5/8″ instead of 3/8″. It’s just a tad too tight as a result and this has just saved my sanity. Yay! Can’t believe I missed this in the instructions…
i’m so happy my note helped you! i was totally stumped on the fit of the sleeves and didn’t think that they would be a different seam allowance, but that’s what I get for not really reading the pattern instructions. heading to check out your version now!