Lining up

Summer's here! I'm blogging this light, casual shirt this time, using the same pattern as my Mario print button-up. I drafted a different collar and facing to achieve a notched camp collar look instead of the traditional collar and collar stand. This is the first of a bunch of shirts modified from the same base pattern.

I made this first shirt out of a cotton poplin from Mood Fabrics as a wearable muslin. I know, I shouldn't risk it with precious (probably overpriced) fashion fabrics but I already knew the body fit me fine. The area I SHOULD have fine-tuned more was the collar as it's both too short and too narrow to be ideal. I also cut the front facings a little too narrow; they need to be wider because the fabric has a decent amount of body and the facings don't sit flat at that neckline fold. I did some tiny discreet hand stitching to keep it in place. It's still very wearable, but the little things stick out to me anyway.

The shirt has both a faced back yoke and a front facing. I didn't know how or what order to construct all the parts together, so I referenced this video tutorial. I could have just drafted a neck-and-front facing and omitted the back yoke entirely but I really enjoy them in shirts for some inexplicable reason. I'm bad at compromising certain technical aspects of garments I guess!

Interior and overlocked front facing.

I will say that for all my worry of overpaying, this poplin is really nice. The tight weave makes it resist wrinkling and fraying. I screwed up a TON sewing the set-in sleeves. Puckers everywhere, constant unpicking, but the fabric held up to all the seam ripping anyway. I'm impressed that my clumsy sewing didn't ruin my cool shirt.

Wooden buttons I found in my stash.

Another nice thing? There's no wrong side to the fabric; the opposing side looks exactly the same. Makes economical placement and cutting easy as hell as you don't have to mirror your front pieces.

    

Bonus: these scallop-hem shorts are something I salvaged from a small collection of things I started sewing in my teens and didn't finish. They're not too badly made, to teen-me's credit, I just had to put in some back waist darts for a better fit and finish the raw edges with a zig-zag stitch. Teen-me even put in deep curved slash pockets. Nice!