Organic Chambray from Birch Fabrics

Fabricworm very kindly sent me some Birch Organics Yarn-Dyed Chambray to try!

What a dream this fabric was to work with! 

I've never sewn with chambray before, I wasn't sure what to expect. I was really, really, really pleased when I opened the package because the fabric is such a unique color and felt wonderful. This is Timber, it's a taupe-y gray that in some light has a brown undertone and in other light, a bit of a blue. The name suits it beautifully. I also like the subtle stripe-y ness of the fabric!

I had to include these two photos! Left is in Yellowstone, right is in Lassen. See? Totally a gray/brown! Timberrrrrr! ;)

My initial plan was to sew Colette's Aster but I've been having a hard time getting their patterns to fit. I made two muslins and wasn't in love with them, although I'll come back to them at a later point.

I searched around a bit more and came upon Bonn by Itch to Stitch. I thought this shirt had nice clean lines and would be beautiful with this fabric. I made a muslin and it went really well! I recommend this pattern, especially to anyone who needs to adjust for cup size.

I washed the fabric first and was pleasantly surprised at how the fabric bloomed. After washing, the fabric is very soft and light, before washing it's very crisp. Don't confuse it with linen, it's tempting to see it and think about linen but it's not. It's a thinner fabric with a much softer hand and delicate drape. I love how lightweight and breathable it is, I wore this outfit (Bonn shirt + black distressed skinny jeans) while running errands in the low 100s degrees and it was fine! 

Sewing the chambray was easy peasy. It loves, loves, LOVES to be ironed. I shared a photo on Facebook of that hem because it's just beautiful! While it loves to be ironed, it still retains a bit of texture which is nice. I think people who love the aesthetic of peeps like Grainline Studio or Fringe Supply Co. could fall HARD for this fabric.

I'm very pleased with my final shirt and it's going to become a wardrobe staple! In hindsight I wish I'd made my muslin with my "normal" bra on and not my "I'm hanging around the house sewing" bra, my darts are a bit too high and long. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this until I was marking the buttons in the above photo. Eek!!! It's not going to stop me from wearing it because I love the way it fits, in reality no one is going to look at me and think "gosh, those darts could be lower", lol. I think this fabric works really well for warm weather, it's nice and breathable which is crucial for Northern California. And I'm also excited to wear it under cardigans this winter, because it's not bulky! :)

• Pattern: Bonn Shirt by Itch To Stitch
• Fabric: Birch Organic Fabrics Chambray in Timber
• Buttons: Purchased at Heartstrings.
• Modifications: None!
• Lessons learned: Modified Mandarin Collar. I definitely did not nail it, but I can say that the chambray can handle 4+ times of being seam ripped with no fraying. ;) This was also my first set in sleeve, I pinned the heck out of the sleeves and they went smoothly.
• Sew Again: YES! I'm going to do the DD version and I'm *really* tempted to get the color Shroom for it. 
• Pattern Difficulty: Easy peasy! The only thing that I was stuck on was the collar, I couldn't for the life of me get it tidy!

A big thank you to Fabricworm and Birch for sending me this fabric to try! It was so fun to try a new fabric that I've never sewn with before!

*Fabric was provided for this blog post free of charge for this blog post. All opinions, patterns and other materials are my own. :)*