SciShirt

The last craft thrift store visit found a Michael Miller print called STEM Squad, which I immediately grabbed with The Child in mind.  The Child approved, and I planned to make another McCall's 6613...eventually.

I decided now was the time, and The Child requested that it not be a full button up shirt.  I think I managed to convey the fact that I could not make a regular ol' T-shirt from this fabric, but said I could make something like the Shrek print shirt I made six years ago (and which was recently banished from the house because Shrek is just not considered funny anymore.  I sent the shirt to a friend who has an online presence based in that kind of kitsch.)  That form factor was deemed acceptable, and I finished it today.

 

It was, appropriately, experimental.

I used McCall's 6613 as the base, cut mostly in size medium (I cut the sleeves in small and had lovely complete lack of need to ease as a result) and fusing the yoke to the lower back to make the back a single piece.  I cut the front on the fold, offsetting the pattern's center front cutting line from the fold by about a half inch before cutting.

I referred to this video tutorial for how to create the placket, and it went smoothly...except for where I accidentally pulled apart a bit of the area with very very little seam allowance inside.  I put Fabri-Tac on that area, and mean to hand stitch to reinforce it eventually.

 

 We'll see how it fares after being laundered.

I could have edge stitched the placket opening edges for added strength, too...actually...I might go back and do that on the buttonhole side (which is the one I ripped) after I get this posted... 

 

I initially planned three matching basic white buttons, but the white buttons I had were not in a size I liked, so I poked around and ended up with three mismatched buttons of the same size, coordinated to colors in the print.

That was not the only place I had to improvise.  (I mean, it's one of my projects, "need to improvise" is pretty much a given, right?)  I had cut the front first, then discovered I didn't have enough fabric to cut the back as a single piece, and would have to piece in the sides.  For whatever reason, having the back be pieced was not acceptable, so I re-cut the front to be the back, and cut a new front with added strips to fill in the sides.

The amount of remaining fabric that was long enough to cut the strips was extremely limited, and, at first, I thought it had led to my most unwanted situation: the same print elements repeating themselves on either side of a seam.  But.  It's only some of the elements repeating.  The nature of this print is that it uses a very limited amount of elements in a few different combinations, so things are similar but not exact on either side of this seam.  (The other seam is much better.) 

The hem and sleeves are finished with 5/8" folded twice, which is deeper than I usually do.

The other improvisation was cutting the collar stand on the bias, because that was the only way I was going to be able to cut the pieces from single fabric without needing to piece.  The result is not wildly conspicuous, even with this strongly directional and geometric print.

I can put this shirt on easily and take it off with not too much struggle, and I am much bulkier than The Child, so I think it will fit.

...whenever it actually is worn...