Arachnoleopard Cheer

A few months ago (what?  longer than "a few"?  surely not...) I posted this picture

with the note that I would post more about it later, after I gave it to the person for whom I (surprise!) made it.

...which I did a few months ago...  And now I'm remembering to make a post about it--the year's not done yet.

I usually start by showing you which pattern I used, but that's not happening here because...I didn't take a picture of it back then, and I don't remember at all what it was--well, beyond "basic yoke-back menswear shirt pattern."  They're...uh...kinda interchangeable...  (Signs point to it having been Simplicity 9931 from 1990, which I got in that last pattern lot and was already cut out, which can be a big factor in whether or not I decide to sew something.  I take my crafting laziness where I can.)

While I'm not a huge fan of leopard print, it's one of those things that might as well be a neutral in my mind, so I had no hesitation combining it with this lil' happy spider print

Especially since this friend has a love of Halloween and a few pet spiders (and a pair of--incidentally--leopard print shoes I gave them a while ago...)  Both of these prints were in my stash, the spiders having been purchases as post-Halloween clearance long long ago, and the leopard print being a thrift find not quite so many years ago.

I thought of using plain black buttons, but my love of faux tortoise shell usually wins the button game

And the same buttons blend well with the leopard print

The back is attached to the yoke with an inverted pleat, which is nice'n'easy

(and very very happy.)

And I...might...have...? done pattern matching across the placket.  It's a busy little print so it wouldn't have been vital, but...I know me.  "Use the time saved by not needing to cut the pattern pieces to instead invest in time spent pattern matching" sounds like a me thing.

I used the method shared by Male Pattern Boldness to set in the sleeves, and that went quite well.  The collar...enh, it's technically OK, inside.  The pattern instructions probably told me to hand stitch, but, yeah, no, that's not happening.

I don't even remember what part of the shirt this is a picture of, but I took it, so here it is.  Happy lil' spiders!