Cat eyes (and cattails)

Buoyed by the quick completion of the witch cameo shirt, I decided to see about using the other yard of JoAnn Fabric Halloween print I already bought this year, a black field with scattered pale green cat eyes (which, alas, don't glow in the dark.)

I'd already decided I would see if I could squeeze the exterior pieces of McCall's 3905 (from 1973) out of that yard. (Apparently don't have a photo of the pattern envelope, so here's a link to the Vintage Pattern Wiki entry for it.)

This was my fourth time making this shirt, and it was the fourth time I decided to use the pattern piece for the long sleeves, but cut it short to make little puffy short sleeves, instead of making the bias ruffle "short sleeve" version.  This deviation helps immensely in squeezing this shirt out of small yardages, as well as just plain appealing more to my aesthetic sense.

It's also the fourth time making this shirt and moving the zipper from the center back to the left side--which does save a tiny bit of cloth (cutting the center back pieces on the fold instead of with seam allowances--at this point, the piece placement was nowhere near what's shown on the cutting layout), but, more importantly, means there's no need for a separating zipper. (I do have separating zippers in my stash, but most of them are outerwear weight.)  Also, as challenging as it can be to wiggle out of a side-zip garment, it seems like it would be even more of a challenge to get a separating zipper together and zipped while in the center of one's own back...

It's also the fourth time making this shirt with a Halloween print.  Huh.

Yeah, I couldn't resist getting the cat-shaped door hook in the photo.

I knew I'd need to use some other cloth for the facings, so I rummaged through my stash for something that was somewhat coordinated in color, but that I wouldn't mind using for facings (instead of, y'know, saving it for use in something visible.)  It wasn't until I was in the process of cutting out the facing pieces that I made the connection of why, exactly, it was an appropriate print to use:

It's cattails.  Ha.

Anyway.  I ignored the pieces given for the facing and cut them so that they extended to the armscyes  and got sewn in with the sleeves, because I like facings to be machine sewn to as many points as possible.  There's also lots of stitching in the ditch to tack the facings in other areas--there're facings on the hem, too, which got ditch stitched at all seams.  I've maybe mentioned before my aversion to hand sewing...?  Things're topstitched, too.

The buttons are purely decorative (YES I SEWED THEM WITH THE MACHINE)--I had considered eliminating the overlap and, subsequently, the buttons, but I thought the shirt would look a little plain without them.

I also tried something new-for-me with the way I applied the elastic to the sleeves, using a method that I've seen in readymade clothes a lot.  The elastic is stretched along the edge of the cloth on the wrong side and then serged to the cloth; that is then folded over to the wrong side, pulled taught, and stitched through the serging through all layers.  I'll probably be using this method again.

As with the witch cameo shirt, I haven't yet tried this on, relying on previous experience with this pattern to know how I expect it to fit.  I do have a skirt I think will go well with this, and plan to wear it on Wednesday.  October, yay!

(And, yes, indeed, of course, it's covered with genuine cat hair.)