Mood:
celebratoryNow Playing: XM 83 - 'Chrome' (classic Disco dance music !)
Oh, you won't believe how happy I am ! Needed a break from shoes - this month's theme - so I looked over the 'To Do' list I posted last month for suggestions. For some reason, working that much-maligned Doll Reader shirt, from the Feb. 2006 issue, seemed the most appealing.
I remember that Erika M. suggested that the probable reason I was having so many problems with it was because it was an open-collar shirt, and I was trying to make it a button-to-the-throat one. That made sense, and the photo with the article wasn't much help. It showed it closed to the top with a tie, but that didn't necessarily mean much.
I also had some issues with the directions the first eight or twelve times I tried to work this pattern. I'm sorry, but I am not gonna sew the side seam, sew the sleeve, then sew the sleeve to the shirt. It's much easier to use flat construction - i.e., add the sleeve before sewing up the side seams. Then sew the underarm and side seam all at once. It's easier to ease in a set-in sleeve that way, too, and it looks better.
So I wasn't as strict with the directions as I should have been previously. As it turns out, about all I did incorrectly was sew the front facings wrong, because I thought the collar went to the neck's edge. Erika was right, it doesn't work that way, although the photo accompanying was misleading. Forcing it to fit of course threw the entire neckline off.
Once I figured out my error - and I really do owe you one, Erika ! - it went together well and it does look nice. About the only thing I did differently (besides the sleeve construction) from the published directions was let out the side seams (I took about a 3/8" seam allowance instead of a 1/4" - as-is, the shirt was a bit snug) and I sewed the facings before sewing the front and back together at the shoulders.
Got a bit more practice in curved hems and finished it, from cut to buttons, in one day. Fabric was from a Hancock Fabrics $1. grab-bag, and is actually too big a pattern for him, but I think it looks nice anyway.
Next one I do, I'll have to make the collar show up better. This one matches and everything !
