Pattern Review: Amy Butler's Liverpool
This pattern review is brought to us by the ever-talented Melissa over at Action Hero. She's a local Portlander, busy making all sorts of beautiful garments of cloth and yarn.
The Liverpool is one of Amy Butler's latest patterns. I was looking forward to this project and using some of the new fabrics from her Love collection. After looking through all the different prints, I finally decided upon Sun Spots in olive for the main fabric and Water Bouquet in midnight for a contrasting fabric. Like many of Amy's other patterns, the Liverpool has a bunch of different styles: a shirt, tunic, short dress, or long dress. You can also choose the length of sleeve: short, elbow, three-quarter, or long. I planned to make the size small tunic with three-quarter length sleeves.
The directions are extremely clear and easy to follow. I think a beginner could sew this project, though the collar may pose a little bit of difficulty. In the directions, the collar and the collar stand are sewn together and then are attached to the neckline. However, with the complete stitching around the edge of the collar stand, it's a little tight navigating that section to the neckline under the sewing machine.
To make things a little easier, when sewing the collar and stand together, I'd recommend sewing only to the stay stitching line on either side of the collar stand. Then, when you are attaching the collar and stand to the neckline, you won't have to worry about the one side of the collar stand being in the way.
There are some nice details, including a French seam for the back panels, cuffed sleeves (or cuffs with button loops), covered buttons, and ties at the waist.
The front also has bust darts, as well as double darts, and there are darts in back that provide great shaping. The only modifications I made were to add the contrasting placket and contrasting buttons. Lately, I've been really drawn to that dark inky blue and think it complements the greens in the main fabric. I love how the blue peeks out from under the top placket.
As I said, I had planned on sewing the tunic length shirt, but then I got a little crazy with my serger and accidentally cut a small hole in the front, toward the hem. I tried to sew up the hole at first, but it was too sloppy looking, so I ended up shortening the tunic about five inches, which was basically the shirt pattern.
As it turns out, I really like the length of the shirt and see it as more of a tunic length anyway. I think I'll get a lot of wear out of this shirt. It will look great paired with skinny jeans or leggings and boots. Now I have an excuse to make the dress version of this pattern next!
Melissa
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