A Real Shirt

I am so proud of this one. The pictures don’t do it justice.  And it’s a little rumpled because I had been wearing it for a bit by the time I took the pictures. I meant to get better ones but whenever I plan on getting good pictures, something goes haywire. So you’ll just have to trust me that it looks way better in person.

The pattern is the Sewaholic Granville shirt, view C (no pockets).  I used Spoonflower cotton lawn to make it.  It’s a great, soft and light fabric.  Not as lovely as Liberty but I would use it again. The print is my own.  I used a slightly blurry closeup of a flower and colorized it in Gimp.  You can’t actually see the flower on the fabric.  My goal was just to have a one color fabric but with variations in the value.

I made a size 14 tapering down to a size 12 at the hips.  But this time, instead of just blending between sizes and then sewing up, I made a muslin in a straight size 12 and pinned out the extra fabric at the hips.  I sewed that up and then transferred my new seam line to the paper pattern.  See, on the two other Sewaholic patterns I made up, I just blended from waist to hip and ended up with some tightness.  This time, I had the exact blending line I needed. I also made sure to be wearing jeans when I made the modification.  I don’t usually tuck in my shirts so I wanted to be sure I had enough ease to wear it comfortably on the outside.

I also made one small change to the construction.  The instructions have you sew up sleeves and side seams and set in the sleeve.  Sure, that’s how it’s usually done, right? But I took a good look at M’s shirts.  They all had the sleeves set in first and side seams done second.  Even my own store bought shirts.  And M’s shirts have flat felled seams everywhere.  Well, not the collar, cuffs, and buttons band but you know what I mean.  Not a serged edge in sight.  I wanted the same thing. And I did it!  I had a lovely puddle of fabric around my presser foot at one point but I got my flat felled finish!

It was actually easier than I thought it would be…

Other than that, I took the time to baste plackets, cuffs, and collar with silk thread to help make my stitching as even as possible.

You can see I still need some practice to get it absolutely perfect but I’m happy with what I accomplished.

And that’s all! Next time, I’ll be shortening the sleeves an inch or two.  I like long sleeves but this is a bit much…

I’m also wondering if I might pinch a little fabric out of the princess seams at the back waist as well. Or maybe a swayback adjustment?  I don’t know.  I don’t want to keep some of the ease but I’m wondering if the back could use a little tweaking.

And move the buttons around a bit. I thought I had one in the exact right spot to prevent gaping but I didn’t.

One thing’s for sure though.  I am going to be making this shirt again.  And again.  It’s such a great basic pattern and I know it’ll just take me less and less time to sew up.

PS: I did finish the Spoonflower challenge I talked about last week but I never bothered taking pictures of anything I made.  It was fun and a great push to work on Gimp, Illustrator, drawing, etc.  The problem is I don’t think I actually designed anything I would actually use, you know?  So I lost a bit of energy for it.  But now, I have some ideas I’d like to work on for fabrics I would actually use so, yay?

About deuxsouriceaux

Creative mommy at home to two wonderful little girls, trying to juggle family, sewing, exercise, family, knitting, photography, and did I mention family?