I’ve made a few DP Studio patterns in my time. It’s a pattern brand I might reach for if I’m in the mood for something of a “sewing adventure”.

My prior DP Studio adventures have mostly turned out reasonably well – you could read about the below skirts here and here.

• 

• 

And, well, this latest one certainly didn’t let me down on the adventure front.

Today I’m sharing my “le 603” piped shirt by DP studio.

I’ve had this pattern for a couple of years and I’m not sure that it’s readily available anymore. I scooped it up when DP Studio announced that they would stop making quite a few of their patterns, so I bought a little collection of a few patterns I’d had my eye on. It was one for posterity.

Well, it’s now been transformed from posterity to a here-and-now-loud-as-all-hell shirt and I’m about to tell you all about it!

My DP Studio 603 Piped shirt

My DP Studio le 603 is a size 44, which I chose based on my body measurements. DP Studio does not include finished garment measures so I always feel as though I’m taking a leap of faith when selecting my size.

For the most part, the design is loose fitting, so it wasn’t too worried. However, as soon as I cut out the pieces, I looked at the back yoke and thought “hmm, that looks really narrow’.

And, lo and behold, the end product indeed feels really narrow across the upper back. Uncomfortably so.

This shirt basically restricts shoulder movement and makes me feel a little bit as though I’m trying to wriggle my way through a tunnel which is in the process of capsizing with my arms pinned underneath me. Or like I’ve been mummified and am trying in vain to use my shoulders to free myself from my wrappings.

Just how you want a shirt to make you feel!

Having said that, it doesn’t look, in these photos at least, being the only way I can see my back, to be as bad as it feels, which actually leaves me worried that it’s the unique conjunction of crazy shaped sleeves and unusual yoke construction which creates the sensation of being trapped rather than any inherent size issues.

So, umm, yeah, a good start.

But, I digress.

The DP Studio le 603 piped shirt is designed to have a lot of piping. As befits its name.

In addition to the back and front yoke, both sides of the button placket are supposed to be fully piped, and there is an option for piping the collar.

I was uncertain how far to go with the piping – fearing the creation of a cowboy vibe. Then there was always the “avoid entirely pointless work” factor, which is always powerful. After considering how “busy’ my fabric already was, I decided to just go with the back and front yoke piping. Which, in any event, you can kind of barely see in this fabric.

Oh well.

Speaking of which, the fabric is a silk/cotton voile from The Fabric Store. I am a sucker for geometrics and large-scale prints and this one just spoke to me. I had actually intended to sew a more ordinary shirt pattern but then I suddenly woke up feeling slightly ambitious and thought that le 603 could be a more modern and interesting approach.

And I don’t deny that it is an interesting pattern. I also think that it would work fine on me with a slightly wider back yoke. But my lesson is that a pattern like this really needs a simple solid to show what’s interesting about it.

Busy print plus busy pattern = just kind of making my eyes hurt.

Instructions kfuyghjsy uhfkjhf

Did you have difficulty understanding that heading?

Well, I can assure you that’s just about what it felt like trying to read the instructions for “le 603 piped shirt”.

DP Studios are kind of notorious for their cool patterns with bad instructions and I can ensure you that, true to form, these instructions were utterly and entirely incomprehensibly.

You know those times when you read over something again and again, thinking, yes, I understand all of those words but when you put them all together they just don’t make any sense!

By way of example, I believe the pattern is actually supposed to include a hidden button placket.

Mine doesn’t.

And this one was not a deliberate style choice but a reflection of the fact that I could not understand how it was telling me to construct the hidden placket. And I’ve even sewn hidden plackets before – I know they are not that hard!

The instructions for the piping and yoke are similarly incomprehensible, but here I at least found it feasible to figure out how to do it on my own.

In all honesty, I would not suggest sewing this pattern unless you can look at the line drawing and feel confident that you know how to construct it without any instructions. You cannot expect to glean any information from the instructions.

Another little note. Not sure if it’s my error or a problem with the pattern, but my collar came out significantly bigger than my neckline. Sure, too big is better than too small. However, I prefer to deal in the range of “just right’ when it comes to sewing patterns. It was a pain to have to cut it smaller and re-sew it.

The upside

Having engaged in the above cathartic word vomit, I do have to admit that it’s not all bad.

I actually remembered to block fuse in order to cut out all my little collar and yoke pieces, which I found really efficient. I turned it into an “interfacing drawer of shame” scrap busting mission, pulling out all the little pieces of leftover interfacing I had deemed too big to throw away and piecing them together into a lovely quilted jigsaw on my fabric.

Oddly satisfying.

I also like the overall shape of the shirt and feel that its high-low vibe works well, as does its volume and gathers.

It definitely needs more work around the shoulders and upper back for me. The pattern actually has you interface the entire yoke pieces to have a structured part around the shoulder and then a flowing effect from the sleeves and piping down. In addition to being (feeling?) too small, however, the use of interfacing on the fabric around my shoulder creates a slightly odd shape (perhaps it’s too much volume?) and adds to the general discomfort this shirt makes me feel around the arms.

Ahh, sorry, I forgot, I was supposed to be talking about the good things in this section.

In all honesty, I do suspect this could be one of those sewing projects where, once the sewing experience fades, I will learn to be friends with it.

But for now, le 603 cactus fried chocolate orange seam sew button twist.

What? You can’t figure that one out? Me, neither, DP Studio.

Me neither.

If you want to see more of my sewing adventures, you can find me on Instagram here.