deer and doe datura in symposium and sheer

i’ve been obsessed with the idea of sheer yokes lately. something about it is playful and daring while still decorous – modest, if you will, although that is not a word i typically use. my initial inspiration for this piece was the prabal gurung for target collection released early last year. i became fascinated with the play of bright colors and unexpected prints with the little bits of design detail that took it to another level, like in this piece (the top specifically).

my original plan was to recreate a version of this blouse by refashioning my colette pastille top, made out of liberty of london symposium, but eventually i decided i didn’t want the strictures of a classic button-down shirt, however elegantly played with.

i quickly focused on the deer and doe datura.

it cried out to me in that way that patterns sometimes do. i saw immediately that i would pair the liberty symposium with white organze and make a cute little black collar with a nice washed silk. i toyed with making bias-cut sleeve flanges, to bring it back to the prabal gurung inspiration, but ultimately decided against it.

the top is, i think, well-drafted although i ran into a few errors as i adjusted to fit. i have to admit that this may have been as much due to user error as anything; i tackled the pattern in a whirlwind of other pattern alterations and lost track several times of what i was attempting to do.

that said, the shoulder seam is a smidge tight – i need to raise it perhaps 3/8 of an inch – and the armscye is similarly affected. also, i have a weird sort of gap in between the bust darts. by this i mean that the front yoke fits pretty excellently across the bust and then the main portion of the blouse sort of droops in the center. in future i may want to take a wedge out of that center front to compensate.

i love the shape of the collar and the curved hem – the curved hem keeps it feeling shirt-like, and the collar is like a peter pan collar but different enough to be interesting. i also love the back button detail.