(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!).

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.

(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!).

(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!).

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.

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