Disappointing Fruit Shirt

 I got a piece of printed cotton, from the craft thrift store last year, that I wanted to make into a shirt.  I just finished finally making that, using the modified Burda 7831, which, at this point, I can assemble fairly quickly.

I was delighted to find that the print repeat was designed so that the motifs near the selvedge edges fit together perfectly with a 5/8" seam, and that meant I could effortlessly pattern match the front bands, which just seemed like it would be such a fun touch.

But.

I was later extremely dismayed to see that, once everything was sewn and overlapped, that meant that my Most Loathed Sewing Thing happened: the pattern repeated directly next to itself on either side of the seam/opening, and there was nothing I could do about it

I don't say this lightly, but...😭

The pattern match between the front and the band is so so good, most notably on the (upside-down) basket of grapes's leaves

Too bad!  The pattern match is so good that the fact there's a seam there disappears, leaving all eyes on the immediately repeating print motifs!

I would have been willing to cut an entire new left front piece, but there wasn't enough fabric.  If there were no placket pieces, I might have been able to overlap the front more, to match the print that way, but...no.

Everything else about this project was straightforward and easy, made in the way I've standardized for this pattern, like pressing everything possible while all the pieces are still flat. This is really nice because it means I don't have to wrestle the seamed sleeves, attached to the entire shirt, around on the sleeve board.

I even went ahead and pressed the lower hem on the back before attaching the back to anything else.  I have to press the front hem first, due to the way I attach the front bands so they encase the bottom edge of the front, along with all the seam allowances on the bottom of the band.

And the back.

It would be a perfectly fine shirt.  But.

.

.

.

Y'know what, though?  Now that I've had a bit of time to think about it, I do have more than enough fabric to cut another band for the overlap on the shirt.  Yeah, there will be a lot of stitching to pick out, and things to encase into other things, now in the wrong order.  I'll have to make all of the buttonholes again. The near perfect, effortless pattern matching will go away.  But.  So will that horrible print repeat, so it will be worth it.

Tomorrow.

Edit: I did.