Amaya Shirt in Printed Broderie Anglaise by Sue

Much as I’m a big fan of sewing and wearing dresses, I do love separates too, especially tops. I think this version of the Amaya shirt by Made My Wardrobe may just have gone to the top of my favourites list! [Full disclosure, Lydia offered me my choice of one of her patterns as a PDF with no expectation of a review and I selected the Amaya with its gathered neckline, raglan sleeves and full floaty cuffs] I printed it off but then didn’t start it for a while until the ‘right’ fabric came along.

As a Lamazi Fabrics blogger we each volunteer for a number of slots throughout the year but Liana was short of a post for early August so I offered to do it. I thought the Amaya would be a good option as it’s not complex and I could probably sew it quite quickly to meet the deadline. When my eyes fell on the beautiful printed Broderie Anglaise I knew I had my perfect match!

When the fabric arrived it was absolutely gorgeous, so soft and pliable. Broderie Anglaise can often be quite stiff and crisp, which may be what you want, but I’ve also found it to be a disguise for a cheaper quality cotton fabric with lots of dressing or starch in it so do be slightly wary of very cheap Broderie Anglaise. This version is a printed soft cotton lawn which is then embroidered, there are lots of eyelets so personally I’ll probably be wearing a plain-coloured RTW camisole underneath as no one needs to see my undies or midriff thank you! Bearing in mind the see-through nature of Broderie Anglaise you may very well want to line it or back it onto something else to preserve your modesty, depending on the project obviously.

This specific fabric does not have an embroidered edge which some Broderie Anglaise does, and also be aware that the embroidered part of the fabric doesn’t run right up to the selvedge, this is normal with this type of fabric. On this particular fabric there’s a wider gap down one side than the other so you may find the useable part of the fabric isn’t as wide as you would think. In other words, don’t scrimp on the quantity of fabric when choosing Broderie Anglaise for a project because you could find yourself a bit short by accident. 

 I opted for a UK size 14 with no modifications according to my measurements but I think I will go down a size when I make another, the fabric you choose could make a significant difference to the finished look so a soft and floaty georgette or silk crepe de chine for example would look divine with plenty of volume but a firm linen, or a cotton poplin could give you the appearance of a ship in full sail! (that may, of course, be the look you’re after!)

This fabric has a one-way design but I chose to rotate the upper sleeve pattern piece to interlock better and make it more economical to cut out, I really don’t think it’s that obvious on the finished garment, always worth checking though!

It’s pretty well impossible to see snipped notches or even triangles on this fabric so, in order to tell the front of the sleeve from the back, I marked the single and double notches with long thread tacks and this seemed to work well. PHOTOS 2 AND 3

I used a French seam finish on the cuffs but found there wasn’t any particular advantage to doing this, for the rest of the construction I sewed regular seams and overlocked them together.

The pattern calls for interfacing to be attached down the centre front seam to stabilise it but I chose not to do this as it would show through the eyelets, I simply neatened the edge of the self-facing with the overlocker. I had a rummage through lots of the miscellaneous trims and ribbons I’ve had from past projects and tried a few ideas out with them but in the end I only used a white cotton trim down the front, and simple edging lace on the sleeves, I would have used this on the hem too but there wasn’t enough, more on that later. 

I added a triple zigzag stitch to embellish the sleeve ruffle too. 

The neckline is gathered up into a bias-cut band but instead of cutting it on the bias I used a straight strip of the printed lawn from near the selvedge. I did this because a bias strip of such holey fabric wouldn’t have worked well at all, the one drawback of the tie being cut on the straight is that it doesn’t curve around the neckline quite so smoothly but it’s fine. The tie is topstitched close to the edge so, to match the sleeve, I used the triple zigzag stitch again. 

Finally I had to finish the hem which I could simply have turned up as per the instructions but I wanted some kind of pretty finish to echo the cuffs. As I didn’t have enough of the sleeve trimming, or any other edging lace which I felt worked alongside what I’d already used, I opted to try out one of the fancy satin stitches which my Pfaff machine is capable of.

I’d never tried this technique before so I did a couple of experimental tests with a few stitches that appealed to me, I put Vilene Stitch N Tear as a backing behind it to stabilise the fabric.  

This seemed to be satisfactory so I carefully sewed the whole hem by this method a few millimetres away from the edge. The Stitch N Tear is then gently torn away to leave the actual embroidery and then finally, as accurately as possible, I snipped away the excess fabric to leave the pretty scalloped edge. PHOTO 10-13

I’m very happy with this finish on the hem BUT it’s just possible that it might not be very durable in the wash, I’m half-expecting that it might start to come away in places. If this happens then I’ll have to come up with another idea but for the moment it looks nice.

I hope you’ve found my tips for working with Broderie Anglaise helpful, and things to look out for with it. It’s certainly a fabric that is having a ‘moment’ at present, it’s timeless and feminine and I’m looking forward to wearing my Amaya for a few years to come.

Thank you as always to Lamazi for providing me with the fabric to be able to write this, and thank you to Lydia at Made My Wardrobe for giving me the pattern.