Cats and Owls and Jack o'Lanterns in Shirt Form

 I bought a particular Halloween print from Joann years ago with the idea from the start to make a short sleeve buttoned shirt, and I finally figured I had the pattern and practice to do it justice.

I was right!

This is another iteration of the heavily modified Burda 7831.  It's almost the same as before, but I re-traced it so the side width and shoulder height are size 14 instead of 12.

I considered the possibility that raising the shoulder height slightly would make the neckline larger, which would make the collar neck band too short, but everything fit fine!

My front band application method almost goes effortlessly now, and the lower edge of the band nicely encases the hem and the band's seam allowances. And edge stitching the pre-pressed band from the top, instead of slipstitching it at the back, is a decision I'll never regret.

I have plenty of black buttons I could have used, but I went with my beloved "they match everything, really they do" faux horn buttons.

Seam allowances were all serged, and the lower and sleeve hems were pressed up 5/8" then pressed in half and edge stitched from the inside, without worrying if the stitch depth was perfectly even from the outside.  No-one will ever be close enough to notice any inconsistencies.

I used the short sleeve pattern piece traced off of New Look 6217, already in the Burda 7831 envelope.  Since the sides of this shirt and the shoulder height were being extended to size 14, there was, as with the neckline, a possibility the sleeve pieces would be too small to fit the armscyes, but, again, everything went together fine.  In fact, the sleeve cap could have been a bit smaller, since I had to ease it into the armscye more than I like.

But not with so much ease that I felt the need to press it to steam out any excess fullness after sewing.

Th print element placement on this fabric was such that I couldn't spend much time trying to get notable elements to end up in significant places, but I do like the center back collar cat.

A quirk of Burda 7831 that I seem to have managed not to realize before this project is that the shoulder back pieces are wider than the front, and have to be eased in when sewn.  Not sure if I like that, but I didn't want to second-guess it...once I realized that's what it was.  I suspect I was just saying, "Huh, these edges don't line up" and cutting off the excess before.

I'm glad I finally made this, and that it went together with no issues (beyond me taking forever to work on it because I wasn't fully motivated.)

Even though I have plenty of things to wear with it, I decided to make a new skirt to coordinate with it, too

That's for the next post.