I Am Irma shirt in cotton lawn and organza

I finished the I Am Irma shirt last month! This sewing pattern is by the French company I Am Patterns and also has a dress version with a high-low hem. The design features a hidden button placket and two sleeve options — classic and bishop. I opted to make the bishop sleeves after I saw a lovely version of this shirt on Instagram (check out @philbertine’s shirt). This pattern goes up to size 52, which is 44 7/8″ (114 cm) bust and 47 1/4″ (120 cm) hip — admittedly not a huge size range. I made size 46 (bust: 40 1/8″ (102 cm), hip: 42 1/2″ (108 cm)). There are no bust darts. The shirt is loose-fitting and gets wider at the bottom, with the back slightly lower than the front. The back has a yoke and a center box pleat.

The fabrics

I had 1.75 yards of this Lady McElroy cotton lawn fabric, Cobra Corsage, which I got at Stonemountain and Daughter Fabrics last year. They had restocked the fabric but as of this writing, it was sold out (you can sign up to get notified if the store gets more in stock). The store also carries other colorways now – mulberry, blush, and marine. I bought it online, when the store was not open to the public. I had no idea how big some of those insects were. Some of those beetles are pretty big!

I bought it for a different pattern but when I saw the I Am Irma pattern, I wanted to use this cotton lawn for that shirt. But I didn’t have enough fabric for the bishop sleeves. The pattern calls for 2 5/8 yards (235 cm) of 55″ wide fabric. I had enough fabric for the body but not the sleeves. Stonemountain actually had the fabric in stock earlier this year, but I’m still participating in the Whole 30 Fabric challenge, which means no new fabric. So I shopped my stash and decided to use a lovely silk/wool organa from Britex Fabrics. I got it way back in 2017 at the store’s moving sale.

The magenta of the organza worked really well with the pink and rose tones of the print. Plus the stiffness of organza really shows off the sleeve shape. I posted this photo in an IG story when I finished the sleeve.

This was my first time sewing organza. So I consulted Sandra Betzina’s All New Fabric Savvy book and decided to go with her needle recommendation: Schmetz 60/8 microtex needle. Her book also mentions that machine washing and drying organza softens it slighly so only wash it if you want to change the hand. She says the fabric doesn’t shrink and to dry clean the finished garment. Well, my fabric was a silk/wool organza with fine lines running through it. I was concerned that the color might bleed and affect the cream background of the cotton lawn. So I soaked the fabric in lukewarm water along with a Shout color catcher sheet. This product absorbs loose dyes in the wash. I wanted to see how much of the dye the color catcher would pick up. Here’s what it picked up:

Hmmmmm. I decided to take a calculated risk. I don’t think the amount of dye from the organza will greatly affect the cotton lawn print. And if it does, it just means the fabric will have a very light pink tinge, which won’t really bother me. I intend to hand wash the shirt.

Sewing organza

This silk/wool organza was slippery and shifty to work with. I thought I was being careful when I cut the sleeves. I used silk pins and pattern weights and cut the sleeves one at a time. But when I placed the pattern piece on top of the sleeve to see if it matched the pattern piece. Well, I was slightly off. But I wasn’t about to cut the sleeves again so I just made it work. I didn’t want to waste that fabric.

This fabric frayed a LOT! See my photos below on the cuffs where you can see how much it frayed. I knew I had to sew french seams along the side seams.

Poly and silk thread

Sandra’s book recommends good quality poly or cotton thread for sewing silk organza. I had plenty of Gutternman sew-all polyester thread in my stash. The poly thread was fine for sewing the seams side seams and attaching the sleeves to the body. But I realized that if I used the poly thread to gather the sleeves at the wrist, it would put far too much stress on the fabric, possibly tearing it. So I used Kinkame silk thread in my stash, sewing a row of gathering thread on my sewing machine. The color wasn’t an exact match — more of a brick red than magenta.

I bought this Japanese silk thread from Britex Fabrics, which carries a wide range of Kinkame thread, which you can purchase online or in the San Francisco store. Silk thread is great for gathering and basting.

Sewing the I Am Irma cuffs

Here’s the gathering of the bishop sleeve, which is pinned to the cuff. The fabric was so slippery, the pins didn’t want to stay in place. It was quite a mess. See how the fabric frayed? The more I handled the fabric, the more it frayed.

I basted the cuffs in place before sewing them with my sewing machine. Pins weren’t going to be enough. So I used the silk thread to baste the cuff to the sleeve.

Due to the fraying, I decided I had to hide these raw edges. The pattern has you sew both cuff edges to the gathered sleeve and then finish the raw edges. But with all that fraying I didn’t want to have those raw edges exposed.

Instead, I pressed a 3/8″ (1 cm) on one side of the cuff, sewed the other side of the cuff to the sleeve, folded it in half so that the pressed edge covers the inside raw edges.

Here’s the inside of the I Am Irma bishop sleeve. I hand stitched the folded edge in place with the silk thread. You can see the French seam to the right of my thumb. And voila! Frayed edges hidden!

When I attached the sleeves to the body, I decided to just sew two rows of stitches and then trim the seam close to the seam line. You can’t really see the seam allowance through the sleeve head because the organza is such a deep color.

You can see the French seam at the botton of this photo (near my thumb).

Pattern placement

It was tricky to place the pattern pieces for the collar and collar stand because I didn’t want an insect on the collar points or on the front part of the collar stand. Those beetles were large and they were everywhere. LOL

I didn’t mind the snakes but those the beetles — yikes. And this is why you need to have extra fabric for some printed designs. 🙂

Shoulder adjustment for I Am Irma

I cut out all my pattern pieces as is because there’s a lot of ease. The I Am Irma pattern instructions say that if you fall between sizes, to pick the smaller size. My bust is actually a little smaller than than the measurements for size 46 (40 1/8″ (102 cm)), but I decided not to cut size 44 because I have broad shoulders. Plus my waist and hip measurements were closer to the pattern’s size 46 (waist: 32 1/4″ (82 cm), hip: 42 1/2″ (108 cm)).

One thing I did notice when I looked at the pattern is that the shoulder slope was a little steeper than other patterns I’ve made. I remember making a mental note to do a square shoulder adjustment. But I completely forgot! Ack. I had already cut my expensive fabric! I wondered if I could get away with sewing it up as is. So I did a scan of the Irma shirt on Instagram, scrutinzing the shoulder fit. On a couple of women, I saw drag lines going from the neck to the shoulder. So I needed to figure out an adjustment.

My solution: Add a triange of fabric at the shoulders that would attach to the front and the back yoke. It would be 1 cm at the bottom and zero out at the top. Here’s the pattern piece I drafted with a 1 cm seam allowance. I didn’t want to screw it up so I made a mockup, cutting the front and back of the shirt, the triangle of fabric, and sewed them together.

Because there’s so much ease in the design, I thought I could get away without making a mock-up. Ha ha. If only I had remembered to do the square shoulder adjustment.

I made the adjustment to the pattern pieces so if I make the shirt again, it’ll be fine. Here’s what the mock-up looked like. I checked in the bathroom mirror to see if it looked OK. It was fine. So I cut four of those triangles in the cotton lawn. I had to cut two for each side because there are two back yoke pieces Then I sewed the shoulders. The extra 1 cm at the shoulder could be absorbed by the ease in the sleeve head. I’d read that there was a little excess fabric in the sleeve head. People were recommending to remove about 1 cm off the sleeve head for a smoother finish. Since I added 1 cm at the shoulder, then the sleeve head would be just right!

Construction details

The I Am Irma instructions have you press the seam allowances of the shoulders on the right side and top stitch them in place. But I used the burrito method to sew the yoke, which gives the shirt a nice clean finish on the inside.

I serged the side seams. For the hem, I sewed a line of stitching 1/4″ from the edge and used that as a guide to press up the hem. Then I folded it again, pressed and top stitched in place.

I tested interfacing for the button placket — the side with the button holes. The pattern only mentions using interfacing for the collar stand and collar, not the placket, which seems to be an oversight. I made three test plackets with different variations of woven interfacing: medium weight, light weight, and doubling the lightweight. I decided to go with the lightweight version. The medium and doubled lightweight interfacing were just a little too stiff.

I also want to mention that I took Beth Galvin’s Hello Stitch virtual class on shirt construction while I was making this shirt. (Beth teaches garment sewing classes and blogs at SunnyGal Studio.) Her class was an excellent refresher because I haven’t made a shirt in years. One of her great tips was to test the interfacing. So I took her advice and then used the plackets to do many test buttonholes.

The finished I Am Irma shirt!

Here are more photos of the finished shirt. Some of these photos are not very sharp so I may take more photos and update this post.

I wore this shirt with my black linen Flint pants (a wide-leg design by Megan Nielsen), to a concert but I’m so sure I like that combination. The shirt is so full at the bottom, that a regular- or narrow-width trouser is likely better for contrast. The shirt hem is slightly curved so it’s a little longer in the back.

I’ve seen some sewists who have posted photos of their I Am Irma shirts tucked in. It’s a lot of fabric to tuck in but it looked good on them. I took some photos with just the front tucked in, too.

I think it looks better tucked in. What do you think?

And here’s another side view to show off the bishop sleeve. You can see part of the pleat in the center back, too.

And another view of the back, where you can see the yoke and the back pleat.

Participating in the Whole 30 Fabric Challenge has been interesting. It has forced me to shop my stash and find creative workarounds. I likely would not have color-blocked this shirt. I’ve sewn about 22 yards at the moment.

Last year, I purchased several yards of fabric for specific projects, which I intend to make. But I will need to make some mock-ups for a few of them. Thus the delay. In the queue: Sew House Seven’s Free Range Slacks and Wildwood Wrap Dress, Papercut Pattern Aura Skirt, True Bias Ogden Cami, and Liesel + Co. Cinema Dress.