A Shirt Delayed

 So, after I gained the weight, and then I accepted that I gained the weight, I went through my patterns (and acquired more patterns) with an eye on larger sizes than I had used in the past.  But.  Now that I'm losing weight, it hasn't quite clicked with me that I should be using smaller size patterns (especially since my waist size, while smaller, is still the same as my also-smaller bust size.)

Which meant I happily sewed up McCall's 6947 from 1963, thinking, oh, since it's vintage, it will have a slimmer fit, since clothes in general had less ease back then

And I also knew that was the older range of sizing, so that was also playing into the "it will be smaller" thinking, so much so that I didn't really register the B38 measurement.  I'm not B38 now.  I'm B36. Just enough to make a difference.

But!  It's still fine.

Really.

I had about a yard and a quarter of this thrifted odd crinkle check fabric, and I was determined to use it for a shirt, and this pattern seemed like I could eke it out, with a number of compensations

First compensation: eliminate the center front seam.  Since I had recently made McCall's 5675, which has a similar slashed opening and no center seam, I had a pretty good idea how to do that.

Another compensation is the usual "not enough fabric" trick of making facings from something completely different--in this case, a black poly cotton blend.  I also added a layer of that poly cotton blend, with interfacing attached to it, inside the collar, because I did not want to know what would happen if I tried fusing anything to that crinkle texture.  The collar may have a bit more body than expected, but at least it's not floppy.

Oh, while talking about the collar--I finally remembered to try the trick of placing strong magnets on the sewing machine throat plate to act as a quick seam depth stop (quicker than attaching a proper seam depth stop--which I think I have somewhere--to the screw holes on the machine bed.)  The magnets were nice for most seams, but wonderful for the curved collar seam

I'll probably be using magnets like this for the rest of ever now.  I store them on the enameled steel end of the sewing machine.

Anyway.  Back to the compensations.

The final, and usual, compensation is shorter sleeves.  I knew there wasn't enough fabric for the full 3/4 sleeves the pattern has, but I was able to cut the sleeves longer than I expected--no fabric left for sleeve bands, though, but elastic would be no problem.

I decided to get fancy and attach the elastic directly, first by stretching it along the sleeve edge and zig zagging

Then going over that with the serger, again stretching as I stitched

After that, the sleeves were attached flat to the bodice, then side seams sewn, and finally turned to the inside and stretched/stitched again

I really like this finish for adding elastic

but

in this case

it felt. horrible.

The sleeves hit at roughly elbow length, which can be annoying, and were very loose so weren't constricting, either

The texture, though. All that crinkle, scrunched up by the relaxed elastic.  Very No.

So I cut a few inches off of each sleeve (even if the length had been OK, I still probably would have cut off the elastic, because picking out the stitching on this kind of elastic application is extra tedious) and grabbed some of the random bias tape I made a while ago.  The result: smooth, uncrinkled cotton in contact with my arms.

Much better.

I also used that bias tape to finish the lower hem, mostly because I was worried that pressing this fabric would make it grow--I know bias tape isn't exactly stable, either, but...you know me and ironing.

Yes, it has a side zip!  Which is another reason I expected the fit on this to be very slim--and maybe it would be, if I had sewn the front darts.  But...waist issues.  So, as it is, I can very easily get in and out of this shirt without using the zipper.

I did end up with uneven zipper ends

after I had to unpick and reposition  the fold on the lapped side of the zipper, so I was slightly annoyed and mostly wanting to be finished.

The finishing steps were making the button loop, which is sloppy because it's me and hand stitching

and then attaching a button

Other photos from around the shirt include the sleeve caps, which, due to the crinkles, I didn't worry too much about getting smooth

The shoulder darts, reminding everyone that this is a vintage pattern

How the hem looks nicely inconspicuous from the outside

And, of course, the back view

I had originally thought that, if I lose more weight, I could go back and add the front darts (and maybe make the hem neater), but, honestly, if I lose more weight, this would probably need a lot more than some darts to fit well.

We'll see how I feel about things whenever the waist issue gets resolved.  For now, I'm glad I finally figured out how to turn this cloth into a shirt.