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If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you know that one of my favorite blouse patterns is the Mama Catherine from Made for Mermaids. I love the gathers below the yoke, and the loose-fitting style is comfortable and flattering on my body. I’ve literally made 20+ of these shirts for myself and family!
I don’t have a lot of green in my wardrobe, so I thought it would be nice to make a shirt for St. Patrick’s Day this year. I chose a lovely, olive-green double-brushed poly from knitfabric.com.
The Mama Catherine takes 2-2.5 yards of knit fabric, depending on what sleeves you choose. I typically use double-brushed poly for this top — cotton lycra is a little too stiff for my liking. I had a little extra fabric leftover after cutting out my olive-green blouse, so I decided to do something a little different this time. I hacked the yoke with a fabric weave detail, and I love it! It makes the shirt feel dressy and unique.
Adding the weave detail was easier than it looks…
I started by cutting some 4-inch wide strips of fabric. I folded them in half (right sides together) and sewed along the long edge. When I was done, I turned the tubes right side out. Madam Sew has a super useful tube turner set you can use for this step.
After I had a bunch of strips, I sprayed basting adhesive on the right side of my top yoke piece. Then, I carefully placed the strips on top and started weaving them. I used a ruler to keep them all going at a 45-degree angle.
After I got the basket weave to look the way I wanted, I carefully basted the strips in place using the longest stitch on my sewing machine. The basting spray held everything in place. The basting spray does wash out, but it takes a couple of washes.
I then turned the yoke piece over and trimmed off all of the strips that extended beyond the edge. Then I was ready to sew the shirt as normal.
What do you think? Do you like the basket-weave detail? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below and I’ll answer your questions.
That is absolutely awesome! It’s got my mind going as to how to use some DBP scraps I’ve got. Thanks so much for the tutorial, too🌷
Love it! Very professional looking!
This is a beautiful look; however, I don’t like a lot of bulk in a yoke. I think I would cut strips 2″ wide and use a rolled hem on both sides of the strips. Then weave them per your directions. I might even try weaving on tear-away stabilizer, sewing along the cutting lines for the yoke, and then using seam binding on shoulder neck and sleeve seams. It would be interesting to try. Great idea, by the way!