African Wax Print Project or "Happy New Shirt!"

Readers, do you remember the African wax prints above, which I purchased more than a year ago in the Garment District, along with a third, which I turned into the shirt below (one of my summer favorites)?

I decided my last project of 2016 -- and first completed project of 2017 -- would be a new shirt made with one of my two remaining African prints.  I chose the blue and yellow one.  As you can see, laid flat (below), it's not the easiest print to work with.  As much as I wanted to feature those spirals prominently, in the end they were simply too large and too target-like for my taste.  I didn't want someone to throw a dart at my back or worse.

So I did what any of you would have done: I designed the shirt around the yellow stripes (which remind me of the Cat in the Hat's tail) and the blue areas. 

This is the back of the shirt (so far).  I did use part of a spiral in the yoke.

Here's how I used another spiral: I cut along the outside edge of the yellow lines with my serger to create long cascades.  I experimented how I might place them on the shirt front.  I like how they give the otherwise flat design some dimension.

I then ruffled the spirals.   The result would have been perfect for a clown costume.

The shirt isn't done yet, but you can get a sense below how things are progressing.  In the end, however, I opted not to attach the ruffles in quite this way -- it looked too much like a lei. 

I intend to finish the shirt tomorrow and will share the result with you in the days ahead.  I really enjoy the challenge of working with these vivid African prints, which are so very different from traditional shirting fabric.

In closing, I hope you all had a great New Year's and I look forward to lots of sewing adventures in 2017.

Have a great day, everybody!

One of my many draping experiments with this fabric.

Read about my first African print shirt here.