Halloween Shirt: Getting Closer

 Not getting closer to Halloween (although, I mean, yeah, it is) as much as getting closer to how I want this shirt pattern to be.

I started with Burda 7831 with New Look 6080 sleeves again, and this time called in McCall's 7575 for a proper collar with stand.  I even made the effort to trace things!

Including the body of 7831, because I have reached the stage where I am very very hesitant to cut a single size from multi-size patterns, and, yes, I know some people argue that you should always trace every pattern anyway.  I am now...considering that more than in the past.

Another thing about tracing the body is that I remembered how, in my old "I use this to make a whole stack of deep-front-dart shirts from novelty prints" pattern, it was set up so those deep front darts were cut out so that there was a seam allowance involved, meaning I only had to mark the tops of the darts, and anything that lets me mark fewer dart parts is fine with me.

This also meant I could manipulate the dart easier to make it a little less extreme, which I wanted to do because of how my abdomen is currently shaped, and, it turned out, I needed to do because of the single yard of fabric I was working with.

Fabric with a one-way print.

 

It's a 2003 Mary Engelbreit print I thrifted a few years ago.

 

Mary Engelbreit stuff is a bit twee, but I do like her Halloween designs (and, as it turns out, social activism.)

I used the same contrast print as in the ghost shirt for the bands in this shirt--the contrast is definitely higher here, but it works.  (I mean, with my If You Sew It Together, It Goes Together philosophy of mixing prints, of course it works, but, in this case, it works a bit more because the flower shapes still echo the ghosts in the print.)

This shirt, however, has a proper collar band

But.

I was so focused on getting the collar and band from McCall's 7575 to fit onto the Burda neckline that I completely forgot about the problem in the last shirt of the Burda neckline being uncomfortably small.  This looks good, but it will never ever be buttoned all the way up.  That's fine for this shirt, but I would like that option in future shirts, so I'll probably trace the neckline from the McCall's pattern onto the tracing of the Burda shirt.  Which makes me extra happy I already traced it.

I had to use the fabric all the way to the selvedges.  The resulting print placement could be a lot worse. I'm not letting it bother me.  I'm not.

 I edge stitched the front bands from the outside, so its alignment in the inside varies, but who's going to see?

 

 

The sleeve length was extended in the centers a bit, which made them sick out more, so I probably won't do that again.  I also cut the sleeves in size 10 instead of 12 like I did with the ghost shirt.  That didn't eliminate all of the ease in the sleeve caps, but it eliminated enough that sewing wasn't a constant game of chicken with unwanted tucks.  I think I know how to fold the pattern piece to make a sleeve that goes down more than out...or I'll check the sleeve cap length of this pattern piece against the length of a sleeve from another pattern with longer short sleeves, if I do want longer short sleeves in the future.

And, as always, I pressed the sleeve hems long before the sleeves were attached (flat) to the body of the shirt.

I wasn't sure which direction to cut the collar, in regard to the print, but I don't think it's too unforgivable to be upside down on the back like this, especially while I have long hair (which of course could always change.)

And the back means we're done!

I'm not sure if my next project will be another iteration of this shirt, this time with a human-size neckline, or if I'll make a simple tired skirt with an elastic.  I have made several shirts for my current size, and I have also discovered that the jeans and skirts I was saving...are too large now.  I do plan to tailor the skirts, but I'll still need more skirts.  But.  This shirt pattern is not yet worked out, either.  So.