Seamwork Natalie and Jo redux

Seamwork Natalie is a button-up shirt with a relaxed fit and notched collar. Before the Waikerie shirt came out, this was high on my list of shirts to sew. If I hadn’t already downloaded and printed the pattern, I probably would have returned it (something you can do with Seamwork – very useful for me since I get patterns and change my mind later). I figured why not try it out?

I went for my usual pattern size: 24. I made no adjustments to the pattern. For a boxy shirt, the fit is okay. The darts are a mess, though. They sit so far back from the apex and very low, speaking as someone who often lowers darts and these are low for me. I’m confused why the pattern even has darts since they add nothing at all to the shaping. Other than that, it’s a bit wide in the back for me, but that’s the boxiness of it.

The fabric I used is a textured cotton from a thrift store purchase. Speaking of thrift stores, they are all closed in Toronto due to our second lockdown or lockdown light, as I like to call it, because there are barely any guidelines to it. Thrift stores were my primary source of fabric before the pandemic hit. It’s nice to use up my stash but my projects are all pretty limited as a result. I rarely keep knits in my stash and sew them up really fast so more and more of my projects are wovens right now. I miss the thrift store and getting fabric for really cheap. It made sewing a bit more affordable. I’m really hoping thrift store shopping can happen again soon with the vaccine but it will be a while for that since vaccinations are going suuuuper slowly here and no word on how the variant responds to the vaccine from what I have read. Sigh.

Back to the top.

I used some cream buttons I had in my stash. I quite like the top, but those darts are a mess and not really needed. Definitely wearable, though. In terms of will I make this again? Probably not. I like the Waikerie shirt too much and the fit and style of that is much better for me. It’s a cute top, though, so I am glad I made it and tried out the top. Beware the darts!

Edit: I forgot to mention that I did some alterations to the dart to get it to look better on this top. I angled the darts a little further up toward my apex.

Now on to the Seamwork Jo:

This is my second Seamwork Jo. I loved my first and wear it a lot. Reminder from my previous one: size 24, shortened by a lot and then shortened some more. Hahah.

The fabric is also thrifted from a while ago. It’s a thin cotton. I used the cutest little iridescent heart buttons from Tabitha Sewer. They are so cute.

I love the top. Definitely a fav pattern of mine. I can’t wait to try out the Muna and Broad Huon shirt, though, which has a similar style but has a full hidden button placket and much nicer tailored features. I have one cut out in a dusty rose rayon twill fabric. It’s going to be interesting to see how the two compare. I know that I will probably like the Huon shirt more (I have an internal bias toward M&B patterns, okay?), but I may still make this pattern again. I do love that half-button placket.

I really love this top and my previous Jo. They have such a cute and chic look but also are super comfy to wear.

TL:DR Review

• Pattern: Seamwork Natalie
• Pros: Okay size range. Boxy style is great and I liked the collar insertion.
• Cons: Those darts are not useful, too low, too far back in the seams, and not necessary.
• Make again?: Probably not. I really like my Waikerie shirt so I will focus on making more of those instead. However, if I were to make it again, the darts would either be altered or eliminated.
• Rating:  3.5/5 stars

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