The Hurrying Spring Along Shirt!

This is what I woke up to on April 2nd...

It was supposed to be spring like 3 weeks ago! So continuing to sew shirts is appropriate for April. Especially since I'm thinking it's gonna be a minute before it gets really warm in my neck of the woods, especially since more snow is forecasted for today.  Oh spring, where art thou?

At the same time, Macy's is having their Annual Flower Show on the main floor of the Herald Square store. I thought it would be the perfect place to take photos of my latest make but of course being the slub that I am I just couldn't make that work. It's a lot harder than you realize to cart clothing, camera pieces and extra hair from NJ!

So my ever resourceful daughter thought up going to Michaels to take pictures in their floral department. She said that there is a #MichaelsChallenge where the store is encouraging people to take photos in their floral department. So we headed there to take the pictures and no one bothered us. 

Onto the shirt ~
This is my quarterly make for Elliot Berman Textiles.  I saw the fabric on their Instagram feed and walked over to see if I could have some. Now I got this fabric in early February. My plan was to make this shirt over President's Day weekend. Well we all know that didn't happen and why! But I was determined to get this finished, so I took it to Sew Camp with me.

This was from EB's feed on IG

It was also available on Emmaonesock but is long sold out!

I'm sharing this pic because of the amazing shots EOS took of the fabric.

Supply List ~
* Cotton Sateen Border Print from Italy - this fabric was in panels and I used 3 panels.
* Light Crisp Shirting Fusible Interfacing from Fashion Sewing Supply
* 8 1/2" flower buttons from the collection

Construction & Design Thoughts ~
Now that this pattern's fit issues have been resolved, my shirts are all about the fabric choices. When I saw this on Instagram, I KNEW it would make an amazing shirt if I could get the border print to lay down the front of the shirt. This is challenging because I don't use a flat front on my shirts. My shirts have a shoulder princess seam...so layout would be important.

This is what I shared on IG when thinking about my layout:

Then it was how do I make the border print work most effectively for the shirt. 

A few things:

1. The border print ran horizontally, so I made sure that all of the main pieces (fronts, bottom back and sleeves) were cut in the same direction.

2. While I cut the collar, cuffs and back yoke on the straight grain, I've done this before and know that it doesn't affect the hang of the shirt.

3. I cut these pieces to work most effectively with the shirt's design flow.

4. Full cuffs for the sleeves instead of a button cuff was the way I went with this shirt. I just liked it. It was totally my choice - it could have gone either way - this is just the direction I chose.

5. Originally I thought that I would pleat the lower back piece where it joins to the yoke. I did pleat and baste it together but the pleat seemed to diminish the effect of the border print. So I went with gathers because it worked better with the yoke and collar.

6. I've been making shirts for awhile now but I haven't been able to master "the burrito method" from all of the written instructions. However, after a lesson or two cause Imma admit Kisha helped me with the second shirt too, I think I've got it now! 

I used three panels and only had scraps left. Some other design ideas thought of but discarded:
- covered buttons from the floral area of the border print (decided it was too much)
- really full sleeves (wanted them fuller but there wasn't enough white space between the border

One more thing ~ 
I chose sew on button bands instead of the fold on ones due to fabric layout. As I was adding the front button bands on, I realized that I sewed one on folding to the front and one folding to the back. I was kinda upset thinking that I would need to unpick the back one. When Coralee piped up and said you should just leave it alone.

Coralee at Sew Camp looking sassy in her Miyake coat!

She was right! With the band going to the back it leaves a cleaner finish on the button band and I will now be using the "Coralee Method" when sewing on button bands!

Here are a few pictures of the finished shirt ~

Doesn't that pink plant falling forward look like an octopus or sea creature?

I love the back swing of this shirt along with how the 

border print works for the cuffs and back!

Sewing Tip for Sewing Shirts ~
Since it's Shirt Month here on the blog, I've decided to add a sewing tip for all of those sewing or reading along and thinking of making their own shirts. Today's tip would be to use the speciality feet for your sewing machine to make the sewing as easy as possible.

This shirt was sewn on my back up sewing machine - Janome 6600P - during Sew Camp. I own a straight stitch foot for this machine and it made constructing this shirt so much easier than on my main machine. I've since rectified that and purchased a straight stitch foot for my main one. However, look at the stitching line and how close I got to the edge without having to change to the edge stitch foot.

Purchasing extra feet for your machine may seem like an unnecessary expense but believe me it's money well spent!

Conclusion ~
Just a reminder that this fabric was given to me by Elliott Berman since I'm collaborating with them to showcase the awesome fabrics they have in-store and online.  I did a quick search of their online store and here is compilation of border print fabrics if you're interesting in purchasing some of your own! Cause y'all know I love a good border print!

This is the kick-off to Shirt Month and emphasizes that fabric CAN make all the difference in making shirts...so step outside the box and use a fabric that's not typically thought of for a shirt.

Next up is my black shirt ~ do you own one?

...as always more later!