Befuddled by my Lady Grey muslin and a never-ending stream of cherry tank tops, I took a little time last night and this morning to make a nice new shirt! I was quite surprised to find that I’ve worn my first version of the Hot Patterns Bo Ho De-Luxe Peasant shirt a few times since finishing it – even though I think of it as a cheater shirt, what with it’s tent-like construction and drawstring waist! Here’s my golden yellow, polka dot version!


[mustard yellow. and dots.]


What I like about this shirt is the cute shape. The scoop neck. I’m not a huge fan of the puffy sleeves. And I’m also not a fan of the self-binding. Ugh.

Once I got the shirt together, I started to think about using some of my wedding stash of black grosgrain ribbon with white polka dots. I love jewely tones with black and white polka dots! I considered using a wide ribbon as the casing for the waist tie, but ultimately decided to go with the slightly less annoying-to-sew-on yellow casing with black and white tie (if I sew the yellow casing on crooked, it’s not as noticeable as if I sew the black casing on crooked!)

Here’s my for-consideration photos…

[option #1 or option #2??]

I used the more narrow ribbon with the smaller dots to do a slightly different neckline finishing than what the pattern calls for. The pattern calls for gathering of the unfinished neckline, then finishing with bias-cut binding strips. Instead, I did a narrow hem by sewing a quarter inch in from the unfinished edge. I turned and pressed along the seamline, sewed right along the edge, then trimmed close to the seamline. I folded over again, pressed and stitched about a quarter inch in from the finished edge. I sewed some gathering stitches (4.5 mm) and gathered. I should have gathered a bit more, the neckline is a bit too wide for my taste!

To secure the gathered edge, I sewed the gathered fabric to the the ribbon, which is 7/8″ wide. The little dots peek up a bit along the neckline!

[a bit of ribbon]

Once I got everything put together, I realized that the whole bow-thing at the waist wasn’t going to work. I’m not that good at tying bows, and with the dots only on one side, it just didn’t look that great.  I shortened the ties so that a simple knot would look nice!

[a simple knot works better than a bow]

Next up, a pair of grey cords!