Quick Halloween Shirt (Not Terribly Well Thought Out)

 I've wanted to make another large-bow version of McCall's 5675, like I did with the pillowcase shirt project, but this time with fabric that...wasn't so excessively synthetic.  And maybe in a Halloween print?  And I wanted the whole project to be quick.

I managed to do all that, and probably will do a project with the same descriptors again, but I'm unsure about the wisdom of my choices in this particular instance.

I had only a yard of the woven cotton Halloween print.  A one-way print.  When I initially cut it, I managed enough for short sleeves, but couldn't get it to work for any of the pattern neckline options so I decided to use a contrast fabric.  The lace was one of my first choices (there is dark pink in the print, really), but I thought better of it.  I waffled about all my other possible options and finally decided, enh, why not use the lace after all, and go overboard by making long sleeves from it, too.

I didn't spend a lot of time on this, even with my usual "edge stitch everything" construction approach.  Could the lace collar tie extension have been sewn better?  Sure.  Would that have made me feel like this project was a better idea once I started assembling it?  Ah...probably not.

Intentional shot of the tiny bit of pink in the print.

The pattern called for one 5/8" button on each cuff, but a dive into my button stash brought up these four pink buttons--which surprised me by not being leftovers from the ghost shirt (those have four holes.)  As always, I used the buttonholer attachment and the presser foot that holds buttons in place while being zigzagged on.

I also deviated from the pattern in this area by doing continuous lap plackets for the sleeve openings, instead of using the provided facing piece.

I serged the inner edges of the cotton, and stitched twice and trimmed the lace.  I also switched between black thread for the cotton and dark pink for the lace, because my version of "lazy sewing" is still more work than I thought it would be.

I shortened the shirt, but did leave the curved hems--as much as I dislike sewing a hem with this much curve, they do look nifty.  I didn't press the hem, but turned it by hand as I was stitching, which wasn't as awful as I thought it would be.

This is one of those prints that could have the very real danger of two large round elements on the fabric ending up over the two large round elements of the body, but the limited yardage forced the center front and back lines to be offset from the symmetry of the print elements, and I think that actually worked out well.

I'm still not sure about this shirt.  I thought possibly it would be just over the top wonderful when I tried it on?  It wasn't...but it wasn't awful, either.  It may be a question of what I coordinate it with, and also admitting that, as much as I like some Halloween flair all year, this one might just be best suited for limited October wear.

Editing to add an In Action shot

I'm still not convinced, but my friends seem to like it.