handmade popovers

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(love this Cloud 9 Palos Verdes voile! and yes, Max’s pants are on backwards)

I love me a J. Crew popover, especially now that they’ve been making them in lovely Liberty fabrics, and have sort of been obsessed with making my own for a long time now. But for some reason, while I have made myself a few tops in the past, a button down seemed very near impossible. Well, my desire finally got the best of me, and I found myself ripping apart an old, too small, J. Crew popover that had been hanging in my closet for longer than I can remember. I drew myself some new pattern pieces, upping the size a bit here and there, and then just hoping for the best (and mostly just hoping that I’d be able to figure out how it all went back together!).

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I made the first out of this great voile print from Rashida’s Koi line (jumping right in with some nice fabric!). Luckily I had saved all the pieces from the ripped apart shirt, as I had to spend quite a bit of time studying it and trying to figure out how to sew it together.

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(modeling this shirt? not an easy feat! sadly this blurry one is one of the best!)

I also found Grainline’s Archer sew along series quite helpful, as the steps used for the Archer button down shirt are quite similar (as an aside, the Archer would be a great pattern if you’re looking to make something similar!).

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(a Liberty of London version)

I was surprised to find that I was able to recreate this shirt (and spent way too much time exclaiming over it all – “look, sleeves!, look, a back yoke!, a front placket!, a collar!… trust me, no one was happier than Morgan when I finally finished this shirt!).

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It certainly wasn’t perfect, but thanks to the nature of this style of shirt, it was wearable, and I can’t tell you how satisfying it felt to be able to figure out something I previously thought was impossible. So satisfying that I quickly made a few more. And I have fabric ready for other versions. There may be such a thing as too many popovers.

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Ah, but no. I couldn’t resist a mini version for Hazel. Meow.

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