Tropical Pink Hayden

Happy Blog Birthday to me! One year ago I posted about a top that I love and wear often. I only posted a small percentage of all the things I made in the last year, but I love all the things that I posted and the things that I didn't. Here's to another year of beautiful makes!

This is an awesome finish that's way high up my favorites list. I love the fabric (rayon) and the print. As much as I like it, it's not on my all time favorite makes because the fit isn't quite right. I made quite a few adjustments, so even though it isn't perfect, it's pretty good.

Shortened the bodice by 3"
Took 3/4" out of back shoulder line, adjusted neckline and sleeve head to account for that
1/5" FBA and adjusted front band to account for that
1/2" swayback (I probably won't do this in the future)

I need to make a couple of changes to the front still. I did a 1.5" FBA on the side princess line piece and only took out .75" back out at the waist. I think I need to take a little more out of the princess line seams. The neckline is still a little weird. One recommendation from another sewing friend (thanks, Sarah!) is to take a 1/4-1/2" from the front shoulder line. Since I will probably be making this again, I might play around with that.

The back isn't my favorite as it's not as flattering, but I think I could make it better with a few fitting tweaks.

I didn't have a button that I liked for the closure, so I tried using a hook and eye. Bad idea. Technically, it works. However, the neckline doesn't sit correctly as it needs a little bit of the gap the button closure provides. In addition, if the tension gets off the hook and eye pops open. One of these days, I'll fix it and add the button. You know, as soon as I have time. Ha!

Overall, a comfortable shirt that will be getting a lot of wear and a great pattern that I will be glad to make again.

This pattern is from the Craftsy class One Pattern, Many Looks: Blouses. It's a Craftsy only pattern, M6649, but it's a basic button down shirt. I started with view C, left off the sleeves and pockets (I've never understood boob pockets, we're not guys, c'mon). I am doing the first step which is to get the base pattern to fit nicely. It's a only mentioned briefly in the class, but it's taken me forever to get it right. The first half of that forever was just talking myself into it once I saw how bad the fit of the pattern was. The second half felt like forever but was actually just 5 muslins later. Could have been better, could have been worse.

I started with the D cup base, but ended up increasing the dart by about .5" and then splitting it into two. Even with that it was kind of pointy, so I've sewed them as very curvy darts. I shorted the back by over an 1.5" as well. Seems like that shouldn't have taken so many tries to get it right, but I just kept shortening and shortening.... guess I could have measured better or something. Also, the darts where super finicky and didn't want to stop being so pointy.

Button Down Shirt Darts — See the double darts (for DD! teehee!)

The sleeves felt like clown sleeves. Since I had enough fiddly work with trying to get the main bodice to fit, I decided to go sleeveless with it and work out the sleeves later. This fabric (free from my mom-in-law!) was super light weight, so I thought it would make sense for a lightweight summer shirt. I finished the armholes with bias tape.

Sounds good, so far, right? Well, let me add to this one drama moment (really, it was more of a d'oh! why????? moment, but drama sounds less .... stupid).

In order to get the bias tape binding on the arm holes to lie nicely, I was trimming the seam allowance down. I bet you can now see where this is going. Yep, I chopped right into the shirt itself. Ugh.

I'd been clawing out time to work on this shirt and it was the first version that fit, so I was not ready to just chuck it out. I saw Mary over at Idle Fancy do a patch with a skirt she made (looking for the link....) and she made it look very nice. Inspired by her, I tried using Wonder Under and a scrap of fabric to make a small patch. Fingers crossed it stays put...

Sleeve Snip Patch — Patched as seen from the back. Wonder Under to the rescue.

Sleeve Snip Patch Front — Trying to match the stripes in the snip wasn't too tricky. Wasn't perfect, either...

Finished Patch — Here it is with the binding on it. Not too noticeable. Besides, who's looking that close at the sleeve of my shirt?!

Overall, I'm ok with the fit of this shirt. I grade my work on the collar at a C or lower, so I need to practice there. Other than that, I really like it. Because I'm so busty, I've never really had button down shirts that were even close to the right size, so this is great! More to come of these and hopefully with even better fit and construction.

Back of Button Down Shirt — Back, with bias cut yoke

(PS, what's up with these pics?? Getting not horrible pictures is far more challenging than it seems like it should be. Still on the learning curve for it. I thought there was enough light, but my camera was glad to prove me wrong. Next time, better, I promise.)