Eleven years ago, I made a shirt that mixed a floral and a leopard print. It was very cute, but I changed size and shape enough that it no longer fit, and I gave it away.
And now I've made another version!
It is less serious and more campy, and I am very happy with it.
The previous project was a more wearable shirt made from the remnants of a more ridiculous shirt, and this one is, too.
The ridiculous shirt project this time was the peter pan collar trapeze shirt I made at the end of last year; the more wearable shirt is once again the heavily hacked Burda 7831, the no darts version.
It is, predictably, a very loud shirt.
In fall of 2023, I made a ridiculously frilly shirt with some delicate swiss dot cotton I happened to find in the Walmart mill end precuts bins. There was a decent amount of the fabric left, and I figured I'd make a much more plain shirt from it (although I'm not sure if I'd say "more practical," because there's nothing practical about the idea of me trying to wear white without getting it stained and grungy.)
Then, last September, I made a vest and vaguely coordinating skirt and immediately knew I wanted to make the basic swiss dot shirt to go with them. Nine months later, I finally have!
I don't feel like there's much to say about this--it's the kind of basic piece that I tend to skip making, no matter how useful I know it will ultimately be, and that basic quality also means it feels like there's not much to stand out about its creation.
I had just enough of the thin black cotton??? left to squeeze out a heavily modified Burda7831, this time using the additional modification of omitting the darts, which I first tried last fall. Since I was doing pattern matching on that one, I did one more modification to omit the front band, but I made marks on my front pattern piece so I'd know where to cut for a band option, and that's what I did here.
It worked out pretty well.
Finally finished! I took the first photo of this project
on October 7. I finished it on October 27. That's nearly three weeks. The lined patchwork blazer I made last year, using a pattern that was entirely new to me, took five days total. And the first Halloween patchwork project I did was acknowledged as a distraction tactic (and also took five days.) This year's project did not distract from...potential upcoming events...and in fact that uncertainty is probably what dragged this project out for so long.
But it's done! And it's cute!
Still working toward making this year's Halloween Patchwork Project, and I decided I do not want to make darts in this potential shirt, especially not the extremely deep darts of the proper...well...modified Burda7831 that I usually use. So! Time for more modification!
I traced the front pattern piece and swung the dart roughly closed, then used the side of the back piece to flatten out the front of the side a little. I decided to also modify the front edge to allow for no exposed band (because I learned from the mistake I made in that direction), as well as leaving marks on the center edge of the pattern so I could still fold it appropriately if I do want to make "band: yes; darts: no" versions in the future.
I started laying out the patchwork pieces, then had the thought that I really should test these changes before committing to cutting into the not-yet-constructed patchwork. I poked into my fabric stash and found a small amount of a print that I had, for years, thought would make a nice shirt, but the colors in it always had me passing over it for other prints. Well! Now would be its time.
I easily cut everything from the limited yardage, including re-cutting a sleeve because the first one had a small stain and the way the print was going to repeat around the shoulder seam did not make me happy, especially after I took the time to pattern match across the front opening. Construction was fast and easy and lengthily interrupted by my period and 'going someplace' and the weather turning abruptly cool, which did not encourage the idea of a short sleeve cotton shirt, so it took a while to actually make. But, made it is!
Ages ago, I thrifted a length of a very sweet vintage floral print. I used some of it for doll clothes--honestly, I figured I'd only ever use it for doll clothes.
Until, of course, I decided I wanted to use it for another modified Burda 7831. There was about a yard and a quarter, which would have been plenty of fabric if it had been 45". However, I knew it was vintage because it was 36".
I am, of course, stubborn. I got the shirt I wanted out of it.
With only a small amount of improvisation necessary.
Since I have black thread in the serger, I am making an effort to sew dark fabrics. I chose a black and white acanthus scroll print and wanted to make yet another button up shirt. I had a yard of it, so I figured I'd once again use the hacked Burda 7831. I've made shirts from 7831 and a yard of fabric plus a bit more fabric for contrast on the front bands and collar assembly.
But.
I just didn't want to do contrasts this time.
I thought a but and realized I could do a variation...without the collar.
I borrowed the scoop neck shape from the fake McCall's 8197 variation of Burda 6401 and confidently cut the front and back, a bit less confidently cutting the sleeves and facings, and then hoping I could get enough length to make the front bands. I did!
And yes I realize the pattern is busy enough to hide anything like a detail this shirt may have.
Nearly ten years a go, I made a cute little shirt that mixed a floral and leopard print. Alas, "little" is more than a term of endearment and I let it go about five years ago, when I finally accepted I was not the size I used to be.
A few years after I made the floral and leopard shirt, I made a spoopy spiders and leopard shirt for a friend.
I decided it was finally time to make an entire shirt from what I had left.
Untold years ago, I bought a quarter yard of an orange jack'o'lantern on white ground Halloween print from Joann; I probably figured I'd use it for doll clothes. But. I stopped sewing doll clothes for sale so often. And when I thought of using it for something for me? Well, with it being orange on white, it definitely had marks against it.
A few years ago, I got the idea of overdying it, to make the white pink. I finally did that a few weeks ago, and then I was determined to finally use it for something.
I checked the stash and juggled the length limits and ended up with this
I cut sleeves from spiderweb lace for the snail shirt, but decided not to use them on that shirt. This left me with spiderweb sleeves to use elsewhere
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...ðŸ˜
More craft thrift store fabric, another modified Burda 7831, changed up a bit with some lace from deep within the stash
I was planning to move on from modified Burda 7831 button up shirts, but I got into my fabric stash and realized this Halloween print cotton was a nice shirt weight, so: time for another hacked Burda
I got this cloth from Joann probably 8 years ago, at a time when the kiddo would still wear button up shirts and I had not yet realized that making something that complicated, that would be outgrown so quickly, was not an enjoyable application of my time. So, I had several single yards of fabric he'd picked out for possible shirts, languishing in the fabric stash. I destashed most of them earlier this year, but held on to a space cat print.
I just finished using it to make a button up shirt for me.
On the one hand, I'm surprised I could eke out most of the pieces in me-size from a single yard with a "directional enough for me to want to treat as one way" print--I cut only two pieces from a contrast gingham. On the other hand, the way I eked out some of it was, in retrospect, not optimal.
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!
I thought I'd take a break from sewing buttoned shirts and sew a quick woven pullover shirt. I cut the tissue for Simplicity 2211, the Lisette Market pattern
The pattern cutting layout showed size 12 of the blouse folding the selvedges to the center and cutting the front and back on the fold that way. Since I cut as much as I can on a large narrow piece of cardboard on top of my ironing board (yes, the narrow area can be irritating, but it's better than floundering around on the floor), I decided I'd fold the selvedges to the center and cut the pieces one at a time.
I cut the front first and transferred all the marks for the darts, then folded the other selvedge to the center and placed the back pattern piece and
oh
it didn't fit?
After a few minutes of wondering if I had somehow folded things incorrectly, I thought to measure the fabric width.
It's a yard of very nice, surprisingly shirt weight Halloween print I got from JoAnn in 2017
so I was shocked to discover it was only 40" wide.
Did it shrink that much when I washed it? In only one direction?
Did it matter at that point?
So I considered my options. The obvious was to add a contrast strip of fabric in the center back and proceed from there. I can't explain why, but I absolutely did not want to do that.
I thought of cutting a new back from the already-cut front, and creating a button front with contrast areas, eventually remembering good ol' New Look 6217. I made so many shirts from that pattern in the early 2000s--even though it was cut in a now-too-small size, I kept it when I purged patterns when I gained weight. Now, I have lost weight, but not enough to put me in my early 2000s size, so I decided to combine the two-part front aspect of New Look 6217 with my current basic shirt pattern, the modified Burda 7831
I settled on adding a contrast asymmetrically, and making the collar and (hidden) front bands from the contrast print. I poked through my stash and settled on a tiny floral stretch poplin, then started cutting quickly before I could second guess myself and here we are
After making all the simple knit shirts and basic skirts, I felt like sewing some button up shirts again. I thought my first choice of shirt pattern would work with my first choice of fabric, but when I unfolded the fabric, I found several faded areas that severely cut down on the available contiguous yardage.
I did pick out a different fabric for the first choice shirt pattern--along with a stack of other fabric and shirt combinations, and another fabric for the New Look 6843 skirt pattern--and decided to fall back on the modified Burda 7831, this time remembering to add width to the front opening (which I wrote on the pattern) so I could flip the interfaced band to the back to make a less-fussy front opening
This uses parts from Burda, McCall's, Simplicity,and my own modifications. It's a potpourri.
